&gt;My point was that you can&#x27;t create a proper application development environment that is both an open and defacto standard the way the web is.<p>In addition to the countless examples posted in this thread, I would argue that if it&#x27;s nearly impossible to create your own implementation of a platform or standard from scratch, then it&#x27;s not really open in a practical sense. Who cares if the specs are available if it takes dozens or hundreds of man years to deliver a passable implementation?