[dqv]

>it's just a douche bag move to sell software and proactively prevent users from having freedom to understand, fix or modify it for their needs

I work in an industry that has a particularly nasty case of vendor lock-in. There are only a few vendors and they all do things the same way: no API and no innovation.

They are causing things to stagnate for the whole industry. I don't get why they don't realize that even just having an API (not even open source!) would lock someone in way tighter than any crappy gimmick feature.

I see open source as a regulator - a reference point that signals to closed vendors that they had better keep innovating or people will jump ship. When it's not there, it makes the vendors slow down since they know they can play it safe with the barriers for migration.

[harrisi]

Do you mind saying what industry you're referencing?

[dqv]

Right now I can't :(. I can't risk the potential retaliation from my current vendor.