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Mono-Culture -vs- Strength

There was the potato famine of Ireland, there was the Wintel consortium.  Both examples of mono-culture where the majority share holder of a segment (food and tech) is owned by a single player.  Sound good, easy to get used to, lots of benefits and, for a while stable.  Also very fragile and prone to sudden collapse.

The Irish had it's potato blight.  The Wintel consortium has fought off virus and malware (see a pattern?) to a draw only to be quickly overtaken by a new evolutionary animal (mobile / tablets).  No external asteroid needed, it's just a mono-culture, it's going to happen.

You see the same desire in the mobile OS market share today.  Android was all the market share, iOS fans want the market share for them, and Window, well Windows would like to be in the game.

But the truth is that the complete market is stronger with a mix of OS's in the market.  Each with their own strength and weakness.  This a plus for everyone.  Each being the favorite in different sub-sections of the market with also being an alternate if a gap opens up or if another OS missteps.  It's a strength, not a weakness.

The same for the development of software.  I'm a native engineer at heart (Java:Android, Objective-C:iOS, etc.), but while these have their strengths, there sub-markets where other development tools are stronger.  A mono-culture of tools is bound to collapse in time.

Personal engineering styles, development processes, design, religion, communities, etc.  are all the same.  There is no one player that should dominate or should dominate.

Diversity is strength.




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