Erm, I think you're the one who's new here. Proprietary Web services and walled gardens are a recent thing. FTP, email, HTTP, etc. are all open systems. Of cou

Erm, I think you're the one who's new here. Proprietary Web services and walled gardens are a recent thing. FTP, email, HTTP, etc. are all open systems. Of course some companies did try to flog proprietary services and protocols decades ago too, but the users were clued up enough to avoid them and let them die.