Yup...this reads like a low-fidelity rant than a substantive observation. Historically, proprietary/walled-garden operating systems were the norm. Trying to g

Yup...this reads like a low-fidelity rant than a substantive observation. Historically, proprietary/walled-garden operating systems were the norm. Trying to get, say, an IBM VM/CMS environment to talk to a DEC VAX/VMS system involved the deepest of dark incantations, and usually some expensive third-party software and hardware (show of hands...anyone else try and implement an APPN to DECNet gateway? Not recommended.). There has never been a time where vendors didn't try and 'innovate' in ways that tried to lock out competitors, or at least made them less convenient. Right or wrong, it's not an insight that it's still a business model.