[michaelt]

Eh, software can be pretty sticky if your users have lots of files in your proprietary format nobody else can read.

A company that uses Photoshop, or Altium, or SolidWorks, isn't going to move off it easily. Hell, existing users will often initially be thankful when product managers stop moving the buttons every 6 months.

Of course you'll stop attracting new customers as your product gets surpassed - but there could be a lot of $$$$ to be extracted before revenue drops to zero.

[yndoendo]

I would argue that much of Microsoft is built around legacy applications and code that prevents moving to alternative solutions. A lot of companies do not want to spend the time and money to pivot, not have the labor to do so. The true tech debt is a hidden cost where change is a visible cost.

[red-iron-pine]

Oracle and MSSQL enterprise owned my last org.

SAP offered to migrate us -- on to their new HANA platform. Guess how much that would cost?

So we still have these ancient Oracle boxes and newish MSSQL kicking around. They should be entering high school before too long...