[incomingpain]

We had this appliance which didn't do much on our network. It went end of life and we got quotes for $300,000 + yearly support for same brand. We found some other brands, big name was a million $, no name was more like $125,000.

After lots of attempts to get budget, no go.

I understood how the original appliance worked; I decided to AI code a replacement. After about 2 weeks I had a technically in production alternative that is arguably better.

So we have this interesting situation where, do you even need to buy software anymore? I really doubt it.