Watching The Bottom Line
In working through the examples, above, you probably noticed that the more conventional the licensing, the higher the per-seat cost. While that's not an absolute rule--there are exceptions--it's generally true.
That, in turn, gives you powerful ammunition in any discussions with conservative bean-counters and bureaucrats who balk at anything other than the most familiar and conventional forms of software licensing: Products issued under the GPL or any of the other less-familiar forms of licensing afford some of the greatest savings possible; and can significantly extend your software budget while keeping your software environment totally legal, licensed, and legitimate.
There's also a "devil's advocate" argument you may find useful: If your business disallows freeware such as SpybotS&D and SpywareBlaster, it also should disallow GPL, open-source, and other forms of freeware, too. That means any business with a "no freeware" rule must not use Perl on its E-commerce Web site; nor host the site on Apache; nor run the Web server (or any workstation) on Linux; etc. In fact, pushing the "no freeware" rule to its logical limits is a fine way to prove just how illogical such a rule really is.
In fact, you usually can find examples of some GPL, open source, or other freeware operating at the heart of any enterprise--perhaps even running the core business. This deeply undermines the argument that freeware is inherently inferior or unlicensable; and helps you make the case that software should be judged by its quality and usefulness; not by its licensing model.
Finally and separately, let me try to dissuade you from using the Hosts file to control site accesses:
By combining resources and expertise, the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium will offer a blueprint for how industries can adapt to an AI-dominated future.
IT leaders should heed the guidance of cybersecurity insurance providers who think businesses should prioritize security education, incident preparedness, regular internal audits, and ongoing vulnerability scanning and patching.
There are many network courses that can address your present job's priorities and help you gain the needed skills to keep pace with industry changes and new technologies.
