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Found on the Web: Short Rant Against Users of Free Web Apps

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daddydave:
Well, I remember when there were a lot of e-greeting services that existed pretty much for the purpose of harvesting email addresses to spam, before people figured out what was going on. Or maybe people still use those, I don't know. So it probably looked a lot like spam, if people have that memory. And the service he provided seemed to be an e-greeting service of a sort, that just happened to have Santa in it.

I do sympathize with the general case, though, of the developer being harassed and hounded for suppport by people getting something for nothing though. That's why HFSLIP (a slipstreaming tool similar to nLite except it was a 30 page batch file) doesn't exist anymore, and he was being hounded by free business users.

rgdot:
Without reading the whole article, the first sentence sums it up for me. I came to this realization years ago with regards to free software. I really do not think it is a sustainable business model.
-Josh (January 05, 2012, 10:43 AM)
--- End quote ---

This can't exist, by definition. Just because examples of "successful" free software are out there doesn't prove that such a thing is even possible, those examples are luck or whatever not successful businesses. I think software authors should understand - and surely they do because they are the techy types - that we live in an age where people want free movies, music etc.

If you write freeware you go in knowing that you are not doing business, whatever comes in (donations, etc.) are happy bonuses.

EDIT: I want to add that the quality of the software is not even important, because quality is in the eye of the user, 1000s of software on softpedia, sourceforge and elsewhere that do the job well but have 100 downloads in their lifetime
 

Josh:
EDIT: I want to add that the quality of the software is not even important, because quality is in the eye of the user, 1000s of software on softpedia, sourceforge and elsewhere that do the job well but have 100 downloads in their lifetime
-rgdot (January 05, 2012, 01:50 PM)
--- End quote ---

This is also part of what I referred to earlier. I have watched on several "review sites" where a program goes from being rated 4.5/5 or higher to 2/3 because of a change in the pricing scheme. Roboform is an example of this. As a long time roboform user, I was under the misconception that they offered free upgrades for life. But, alas, they played the upgrade/update game. Upgrades are typically referred to as v1 to v2, etc and updates are from 2.0 to 2.99. As soon as the change with RF Everywhere came into play, the once highly rated program went from a 4.4 on FileForum to a 3.7.

In the end, it comes down to what you stated rgdot, people want things to be free. Free movies, music, software, beer, etc. As soon as something goes from freeware to commercial, the bar for "required quality" is lowered and "good enough" is just that, good enough. People are willing to settle as long as they don't have to pay and they also will actively protest when their beloved freeware, of which most never pay a dime to support, asks for money.

rgdot:
Society doesn't reward hard work, in the realm of bits and bytes it is no different. I wouldn't be happy if a freeware I use goes shareware either and I would prefer it to be shareware from the start so I know where I stand today and next year.
When something is deserving of support eventually something is possible but not in a business model sense - example, I paid for a pro version of a software but never upgraded to the pro and continue to use the free version I had already installed.
Ratings should be taken with a grain of salt anyway, I came across that on a recent hardware purchase, there isn't a single router that has consistently good ratings.

JavaJones:
I think the vast majority of people using Google, Facebook, and many other free services don't really (actively/consciously) recognize that they're the product, that the company is making money off of them. If they do know, they don't care that much, and it's not the reason they feel entitled to get things free nor expect to get new features implemented, etc. I don't know precisely the reason that *is* the case, but I don't think it's to do with the fact that money is being made somewhere. The *opposite* effect - paying customers generally being nicer - may have more to do with the "overjustification effect" than anything, in fact.

As to the potential success of "freemium", well of course there always needs to be *some* source of profit. But there's no reason that sales of an application needs to be its sole or primary source of income, or indeed generate any income at all. Many other industries have done this for years. Newspapers sell advertising. Websites have web ads. Free-to-play MMOs have add-ons and trinkets you can buy. Money is always being made somewhere, it's just a matter of how palatable it is to your overall user base.

- Oshyan

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