If memory serves, and it often doesn't thee days so please don't hesitate to correct this, the US government once drafted similar guidelines for protection agai

If memory serves, and it often doesn't thee days so please don't hesitate to correct this, the US government once drafted similar guidelines for protection against IT vendor lock-in. The acronym was GOSIP, and it was somewhat well adopted when Sun and IBM were popular choices. Unfortunately, those 2 big vendors along with Apple utterly failed to capitalize on the opportunity, addicted as they were and still are to hardware/software tie-in and associated high margins. Microsoft just filled the gap left by it's competitors. Sadly, no Unix or Linux vendor has shown particular aptitude at it either, much as RH and Ubuntu have at times shown promise. But heads-up, this is the same gap that was filled by MS and it is still open!