Avoid lock-in

It is common practice among commercial software providers to use proprietary data formats and other methods to make it difficult for users to choose other suppliers. Coupled with the requirement to upgrade every year or so, this puts the commercial software company at the controls of any company that depends on their software. To make this worse, often the software upgrade requires new hardware too.

This news from Australia explains how lock-in affects other countries, and also the way that it impedes innovation and competition. Open source breaks this lock. Customers are in control, not vendors.