I just returned from a short vacation in a beautiful part of Germany with my girlfriend and a couple of good friends. The drive took some time, so I had loaded my phone with a few "podcasts" with Jonathan Schwartz. I downloaded these podcasts to try to really grasp the Sun business model, as it wasn't obviously comprehensible to me. The podcasts were really interesting (in fact, stop reading and go and download the .mp3 and put it on your phone right now) and left me with a good understanding of how the inverted business model (free software, pay for support) is actually the future.

In one of the two podcasts, Jonathan (I believe) mentions cell phones and how you pay for them. You often don't. You pay for the subscription. This must have been a very strange approach when it was first introduced to the market, but now it's standard practice. And today it is spreading to the broadband market. Today you can subscribe for broadband and get a free laptop!
This is by no means an ad for Orange broadband (I don't know them - they're over there on that island where the steering wheel is in the wrong side of the car). This is just another proof that the subscription business model is the future. Somewhere in the future you'll get a car for a symbolic amount of money as long as you always fill up the tank at some gas company! Just watch...

So what does this mean to you as a computer user? Well, I asked a close friend named Captain Obvious, who stood up and told me to spread the word: "You don't have to pay for software". And if you've never done so anyway (did you say you were a student?), go and get Solaris now (you might as well grab the most advanced of the free ones) - the next time you leave home, you can do so without looking for a mysterious black van parked outside.

(and if you're stuck with an OS that you have to pay for because you still love to play games, get a Wii, (wo)man! Great fun and you get the exercise you know you should be doing but never get around to)