[ptribble]

I was at the talk, and thought at the time that Rankin missed the main point.

Linux didn't beat Sun because it was better, cheaper, or had more ideologically pure licensing.

Linux dominated because it was accessible. Anybody could download it, try it, it ran on most things. Barrier to entry was essentially zero. Licensing helps, but it's being trivial to access that is the killer outcome.

And the reason behind the rise of cloud isn't because it's cheaper or better, it's that it's more accessible. Anybody can get out their credit card and try it, use it. Barrier to entry is essentially zero, and that's how to suck people in.

[zerogvt]

I don't think so. You need a non-maxed out mainstream credit card (gift cards or prepaids won't work) and still you're locked out of a lot of functionality (e.g. k8s in AWS) unless you are willing to actually pay. Also any trial period comes with an expiration date. That might be a low barrier but it is not a zero one. I know a lot of people that are still out of cloud due to all that.

[pdelgallego]

That is one of the reasons AWS is giving a generous free tier for Lambda (1 million request per month). It is extremely easy to setup, and basically free for toy projects