It's both, ironic and outrageous, that many companies try to lock users on their proprietary standards in the name of compatibility. If their standard is proprietary, any one who buys into it will be locked to use that company products.
That's why we need to make sure that open standards are used by all companies. This way, we can rest assured that as users we'll not be locked the products and services of a particular company. It's about our freedom to choose whatever product we want to, without having to worry about if it will be compatible with other things we have or with the devices of our friends.
Open standards are vital to keep our freedoms, and rights, as users. Since open standards allow for anyone to use them, without having to develop solutions all by themselves all over again. Not only that, by the very nature of how open standards are developed, it's a lot easier for improvements to the standard to be shared and reach a wider sector of users.
The standard should be one and the same for all, what has more room for differentiation is how the standard is implemented. Where users needs really are not the same is in how the standard is implemented, while the standard is not changed in itself.
One company's products should be compatible with the products of other companies, not just with it's products. If it doesn't, they are not really respecting our rights as users, since they will be locking us to their products, unable to jump to other products without a significant penalty. Proprietary standards are not beneficial for users, but for the company who develops them.
That's why we need to support open standards, since they are the ones that better protect our interests as users. They help ensure our freedoms, and our right to choose what we want to buy to use in our daily lives.
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