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Proprietary software has not been a business moat for decades. The moats are their complements: hardware, networks and protocols (including humans), data and formats.


True, but that hasn't stopped big companies from not open sourcing the crown jewels, just for good measure.

Apple post 2011 has never open sourced their UI toolkits, Google has never open sourced their search engine, etc.


The code for both of these is largely a liability. You cannot market a competitive offering in the OS or search spaces with code alone.


It's so much of a liability that Google and Apple don't dare release it, even 27+ years and 14+ years after the original release.




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