

Is Vendor Lock-In Really a Bad Thing? - lmacvittie
http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2009/11/13/is-vendor-lock-in-really-a-bad-thing.aspx

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jacquesm
I hope that's a rethorical question ?

The author tries to link the fact that people would like to see data
portability in cloud computing to the success of consumer stuff like the
iphone and the like.

They are completely different beasts and you can't compare them like that.

As for the closing question: "Has the possibility of “vendor lock-in” ever
stopped you from making a purchasing decision or is it just a “potential risk”
that’s weighed in the overall decision making process?"

Yes, every time. And unless the product has very limited utility for me (say
facebook or something like that) I refuse to put myself in to a position of
'lock-in' because experience has taught me that it is only a matter of time
before the thumb screws come out.

So even 'free'+'lock-in' won't cut it for me.

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DanielBMarkham
Playing devil's advocate, I think there's a difference between what you would
do and what the average consumer would do.

There's also a difference between something that might be better in the short-
term (say over 2-3 years) and something that is good for the long haul.

But I feel the same way as you do, mostly. I'm just more willing to make that
trade off for say, a Kindle, knowing that in the near future I'm jumping to an
open platform as quickly as possible.

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jacquesm
I'd never buy an iphone for that reason, and as for the kindle, I'd buy one
but _only_ to use it as a reader for open format text files.

The DX isn't available here though, so I guess even that will have to wait.

The reason your 'typical' consumer and the HN audience approach this in a
different way is probably because a consumer usually isn't aware of the exact
moment they are locked in, they only find out to their regret much later.

But by then it is too late, and the price to switch is too high.

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asciilifeform
Next: Is Sticking Your Hand in a Bear Trap Really a Bad Thing?

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maukdaddy
Vendors like this is what makes me want to get out of IT.

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wglb
Consider the mainframe, and, say, CICS. Things in that end of things are now
such that IBM and others are making special efforts to recruit youngsters to
work in that world. It seems reasonable to suggest that the reason that there
is still all that many COBOL and mainframe shops in the world is due to vendor
lock-in.

The cost of that? Well, one can sketch out part of the opportunity cost of
that. Consider ITA which fuels Orbitz and others. Their technology, running
our idea of modern servers, gets at least an order of magnitude better results
than the mainframe technology it replaced.

This old iron doesn't even have _files_ or _filesystems_.

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bitwize
But the old iron is almost completely reliable. Forget "five nines" of uptime;
we're talking a one and two naughts. CPU modules, disks, and I/O peripherals
can be hot-swapped with no interruption to service. Furthermore, the I/O
bandwidth on those suckers is through the roof. Likely that's partially
because a mainframe computer system consists of a CPU which does the heavy
lifting and a whole bunch of satellite computers -- actual computers -- whose
whole purpose in life is to drive I/O devices and relay information between
them and the mainframe CPU.

When your application _has_ to be up and _has_ to service an entire department
or organization for decades on end, the IBM mainframe platform is pretty much
the only choice.

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jacquesm
Tandem (now HP) made good money because IBM stuff wasn't always up.

I've worked for a bank and have seen two serious mainframe crashes. They're
rare, but they do happen, and when they happen you can bet that the vendor
will get involved because it really isn't supposed to happen. Unlike the PC
world, where if a machine crashes it gets rebooted and nobody bats an eye. I
blame the 'we're not to blame' culture around PC software manufacturers.

You're spot on about the IO, that is the place where big iron really shines.

The place where I worked had both Sperry and IBM stuff (we got 'bought' and
had to move all the software from the Sperry machines to the CICS environment
on a 4381).

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vegai
yes

