Ed Felten discusses the monoculture meme:
Freedom to Tinker: Monoculture: Third, it may be possible to have the advantages of compatibility, without the risks of monoculture, thereby allowing users to work together while suffering a lower monoculture penalty. Precisely how to do this is a matter of ongoing research.
I read that as a call for open standards. In the course of making the various protocols work everywhere, with development taking place in the open, security risks would be minimized and interoperability would be maximized.
We missed an opportunity to make this happen when Netscape failed to make Windows nothing more than “a collection of slightly buggy device drivers[1]”. Perhaps “web services” will get us there this time.
fn1. This article also notes the decline of the Windows-Intel desktop . . . . oops.