CROSS-CATEGORY: Lock-In Moved in Both Directions in the Same 48 Hours, and the Open Direction Had the Money Behind It

VirtualizationHowto, D2/Terrastruct and Mistral AI (three independent primary sources)·high signalXBlueskyLinkedInCopy link

Three vendor decisions on lock-in landed 2026-09-07 to 2026-09-08 and point opposite ways: Broadcom deleted the VDDK downloads that every VMware-exit tool depends on, Terrastruct open-sourced TALA under MPL-2.0 and gave away the layout engine that was its entire paid tier, and Mistral raised €3B at €21B on an explicit pitch that open weights keep customers off a single vendor's roadmap and pricing. The pattern worth acting on is which strategy attracted capital: the two open moves were the funded and the celebrated ones (569 and 247 HN points), while Broadcom's closure landed as 216 points of documented migration breakage. Enclosure still works on installed bases with no exit, but it is no longer a story anyone can tell to raise on.