Dalton's definition of a platform is excellent. It doesn't reach up and mess with your application.

> They’ll never charge you a percentage of business or threaten to get into your business. That’s a true platform because they’re getting paid to provide a service.

Just because they're charging you a percentage doesn't make them not a true platform.

Oracle and Gemstone used to (and probably still do) as for a percentage of your budget/estimated sales rather than a strict rate.

Is the author using "vs" as a synonym for "Against" in the headline?

The two expressions cannot be used interchangeably.

"X vs Y" seems to require that X and Y be "of the same type", whatever that means.

"X against Y" has no such restrictions.

When I read this headline, I come away thinking that there is some product with the proper name "The Case".

Same here. Hard to take an author seriously with such a boneheaded illiteracy in the title.