But why did that make development cheaper? An enterprise copy of Windows with IIS cost maybe a thousand bucks, right? Maybe there were more costs, my knowledge is, y'know, 23 years out of date.
You decide you need a web server. Ask management chain for approval. Ask IT dept for approval. Ask finance for approval for the expense. Contact Microsoft sales. Buy it.
Now you can start developing on it…
With open source it’s not just the cost of software you save, but also potentially all the other bureaucracy that you save due to not having to pay money to do something. You also get a lot of transparency on the technical side about the products you may choose to use.
If MySQL and Postgresql had been acceptables choices 25 years ago, our company at the time would've saved SO MUCH money that now went to fund Larry Ellison's yacht(s).
Both existed, but not in a way anyone could sell to a) customers b) C-staff making the final call.
