Comment Re:How To: (Best Guess) (Score 4, Interesting) 227
Step 5: Model Linux's ecosystem: standards win since they're multiply-implemented.
I'm surprised there hasn't been more mention of standards here, although I've had variable success with standards myself, and good success with open non-standard systems.
Good chioces: Qt, VTK, OpenGL has been extremely long-lived.
Mediocre choices: XML, wx (I moved to wx from Qt when TrollTech went insane over licensing, but have been slowly migrating back in recent years as wx support has decayed on platforms I'm interested in.)
Bad choices: XSLT, VRML
I still use XSLT for some stuff, but VRML was a mistake. Apparently you should stay away from four-letter-acronyms.
Summary: although I prefer standards over non-standards, open vs closed is the fundamental divider between good vs bad bets. Not everything open will survive, but nothing closed will.