The Trend of Simple Solutions on Open Standards

Today I was looking for a Java SSH library for the purpose of automating system administration through Ant (another requirement that came out of the services that I do in my church). I found JSch which is used in Eclipse 3.0 for accessing CVS over SSH2. I looked at the examples and was very happy to find it has everything that I need for my purpose (port forwarding and all). This is just one example of powerful solutions built on top of widely deployed implementations of open standards. Other examples:

• Word processors (or generic applications) built with XML, CSS and JavaScript (vs Microsoft Word or OpenOffice types of applications)
  
• Internet-wide messaging using SMTP (vs JMS)
• Others escape my right now; Will add later

The advantage is you do your work on the shoulders of giants and these giants all developers know and are everywhere your users are.