Old analog televisions had controls labeled Horizontal and Vertical. One kept the picture from falling over sideways, while the other kept the picture from sliding off the top or the bottom of the screen.

I think we need similar controls in our heads when we look at the product categories we call markets.

In the world of free software and open source, we mostly care about the horizontal: creating code, standards and other tools that open markets sideways, toward the horizons, supporting freedoms along the way. We want more people to be able to do more stuff in more ways. We work to keep both developers and users free from capture in the vertical markets we call silos.

We don't often ask "Where would we be without silos?" because we know. We would be free to build and use what we want, out in the market's wide open spaces.

Still, the silos serve some purposes, even it those are not our purposes.