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I’m actually seeing people say, “Never in the history of tech have people migrated from proprietary software to open source software.”

Oh yeah? Then what about the server migration from Windows NT to Linux?

What about the migration from MCA to ISA?

What about the migration from closed networks like AOL to the bloody Internet?

Thing is, when all those migrations happened, the benefits were obvious to all. Linux saved people millions of dollars because it was free. ISA gave us cross-compatibility for off-the-shelf PC parts. The Internet vastly expanded the network effect for online services.

But what made all those migrations possible was that the emerging tech was somewhat familiar to those who used a previous generation of tech. Linux adoption was possible because it was similar to *nix. ISA adoption was possible because of DOS. Internet adoption was possible because it was not that much different from using AOL, and soon enough, AOL provided users with access to the broader Internet.

So if we want broad adoption of the Fediverse, and eventual migration off proprietary services, then the benefits of federation need to be obvious to people who are not yet here – and they need some level of familiarity.