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When software ecosystems die
- dqv 10y ago>With Software-as-a-Service you're back in the realm of choosing between monopoly pricing and chance of software disappearing. For some kinds of data, this is okay. Modern SaaS providers seem to be cognizant of the fact that we still want control of our data and so accommodate that with an API. The example given hits home for me. There is still one piece of business-critical legacy software that I use that currently has no viable exit path. If the developer ceased to exist, I would be screwed. I know they won't give the rights to the source. I don't think I want to see it. So I've been spending many hours over the past 1.5 years learning how to build the backup parachute.
- BraveNewCurency 10y agoI don't think "go with the market leader" is a viable strategy, since I'm sure we can all find examples of the market leader being upended.. So the real moral of the story is "Don't base your livelyhood on proprietary software because companies WILL go out of business and leave you in the lurch."