[cj]

> make the product available as a stand-alone application [...] even if it doesn't run on Google's infrastructure

How would they do that? Who would pay the server costs?

Edit: Out of curiosity, is there anyone reading this comment that would be willing to pay for the infrastructure costs to keep Poly alive?

[bognition]

Not to mention that its been built on top of the Google internal development stack and getting it working outside of that environment would require a substantial re-write.

[olau]

So you're saying they're getting bitten by vendor lock-in?

[dewey]

How is it vendor lock-in if the internal code base that was never built in a way to work in the outside world can't just be taken and dropped on Github?

[rakoo]

We are being bitten by vendor lock-in, once again

[monsieurbanana]

No? We're getting bitten by vendor lock in.

[amelius]

> How would they do that? Who would pay the server costs?

The user would run the server, or another company, or a group of enthousiasts. It doesn't need to be expensive, especially if the user doesn't require many other users on the system.