Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The problem is that individuals cannot cut it out, because big tech firms use it pretty widely. It's basically a moat that allows companies to ship products using a shared standard, but makes it impossible for individual developers to (especially ones who aren't actively trying to start a business, but even then, $7500 a year is a lot for a garage-level startup for a technical standard).

Imagine how much less innovation there would be if it cost $7,500 a year to write anything that uses the Internet Protocol suite of standards.



I don't like to make predictions, but I think it will all eventually be swept away by forced open interoperability that is coming in strong from Europe. I don't feel any loss for independent developers who feel excluded from proprietary, locked "markets". It's saving them from wasting time. Let's check-in again on this situation in a couple of years. I'll bet "threads" is not even on the map. In the long game it always pays to go with the most free, open and interoperable standards, even if it limits opportunities in the short term.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: