"Free stuff is many times accompanied with a bad taste in common public opinion. As a rare exception, the open source software movement however has successfully disproved this impression during the last decade. Today major firms are involved in this open and free stuff, from IBM, Sun, HP and Novell--not to mention Red Hat, which is one of the most successful open source vendors. Different business models and benefits are tied to open source, making free an advantage for these players, sometimes for many different reasons.
"Enter digital certificates. They are an important part of the Internet for identification and e-commerce. They used to cost, in the not so distant past, up to hundreds of US$ per certificate and year, making security for web site owners often expensive..."
