Enterprise Open Source Magazine is the world's leading publication showcasing every aspect of profitable Open Source solutions in business and consumer context.

The End of an Era: How software-as-a-service and open source are reducing our licensing costs

By Mark R. Hinkle

The other day I was driving down the highway when I passed an American classic, a 1965 Ford Mustang. As I waxed nostalgic, I realized that there will never be another era in history where we will appreciate automobiles like those produced in the 1950s and 1960s.

No matter what their merits, I don’t foresee automobile afi cionados 50 years from now tooling around in a Toyota Prius, Honda minivan, or any of today’s plastic-covered modes of transit.

This realization saddened me to a degree. I spent the years up to my 16th birthday in my father’s car dealership admiring these gas-guzzling steel monsters. At the same time I had my fi rst dedicated access to a computer, a 286 model that was used to keep the accounts for our swipe-card gas pumps. It was a time before Microsoft Windows, and computer users were in a minority in comparison to automobile drivers...

About the Author: Mark R. Hinkle, editor-in-chief of Enterprise Open Source Magazine, is the vice president, Community and Business Development at Zenoss Inc. He serves as a founder of the Open Management consortium and is the author “Windows to Linux Business Desktop Migration” (Charles River Media). mrhinkle@encoreopus.com

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