[ Thanks to Eddy
Nigg for this link. ]
“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…”