Choice Through Interoperability
No user should be required
to use a particular product simply because other users do.
Competing products should interoperate with each other
through open standards.
There is a place for standardization: the part of a
program that communicates with other computers through file
exchange and networking. And there is a place for product
differentiation: everywhere else. If file formats and
intercommunication formats are standardized, competing
products will be able to interoperate. This will help
create a healthy software ecosystem in which competitors
win, or lose, based on the merit of their programs, rather
than the degree to which they have locked in their users.
Economics will drive down the cost of software and drive
improvements in quality.
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