Do people create free software? Hi, everyone.
Leo Notenboom here for Askleo.com.
Here's one example question that I do get from time to time.
What prompts an individual or organization to create and offer software for free?
Is there some hidden agenda that I'm missing that drives these people to put
all that work into developing these applications and then give them away?
Occasionally there is a hidden agenda, but more often than not, there isn't.
People create free software for a variety of really interesting reasons.
I think it's worth understanding what those reasons are and potentially
then be able to use that as a way to evaluate
whether or not a particular piece of free software is something you want to use.
Now, believe it or not, there are people who actually enjoy their computers.
They enjoy technology, they enjoy writing software.
So yeah, some people create software
and release it for free because they find it fun.
They have something to do.
They have a way of exercising their talent
in a way that they see might benefit others, and they just do it for fun.
It's a very almost
selfish approach to doing it, but nonetheless, it's one reason.
A very closely related reason is what I'll call altruism.
There are folks who create free software specifically to give back.
It's not uncommon for folks
in the technology sector to feel like they have been blessed with talent or expertise
or situations where they really do want to give back to their community.
And by community, that might mean their local community, or it
could mean the internet community or the planet as a whole.
That's another reason that they might try to create software that solves a problem
for their community and then give it away for free.
Now, another is what I'll call an agenda.
And I don't mean a bad agenda, I mean a specific agenda.
For example, some years ago,
the folks out at the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
I believe it is, created a tool called HPTPs Everywhere.
Its intent was to automatically use HPTPs connections
whenever they were available, regardless of what you as a user would have typed in.
The intent was to promote the agenda
of having more secure connections, making HttPS the norm.
In order to promote that agenda, they give the software away for free.
Now, it sounds counterintuitive, but sometimes
even when you're giving away free software, money is still the reason.
And that happens in a couple of different ways.
For one thing, there's a thing called
donationware, which means you use software for free.
You can use it for free forever, but you are asked to make a donation.
Maybe even nag periodically to make a donation.
But the bottom line is the software is completely free.
It's completely up to you if you want to donate some money in return
for getting this free software that you determine is valuable to you.
Another is what I will call branding.
This is a really good example of tools like Outlook.com
or Gmail.
They are completely free, but they exist in a lot of ways
to promote their parent brand, be it Microsoft or Google, and the services
and other products that are offered by those brands.
The intent, the hope is that by bringing you into their respective ecosystems,
you will eventually end up spending money on some of their other services.
You don't have to.
You are welcome to join use other services.
The services that they provide for free are indeed for free.
But sometimes the inertia of working
within an ecosystem makes it easier to just
spend a few bucks for a service rather than having to research another
free alternative from a potentially incompatible source.
Some free software exists entirely to give the creator credibility.
That means that this software might be getting given away for free in order to
basically give that creator a track record, to give them an example or to show
you that they are capable of creating really good software that is useful.
That software might be completely free.
They might then also have other software, either other versions of the same utility
or other utilities that promise same value but that are not free.
A really good example are not necessarily
free trials, but free versions of popular utilities.
A good example might be a free version of a backup tool.
It might not have all of the features of the paid version, but it is still
out there for you to use, get comfortable with,
and then when you decide you really do need that feature that's missing,
then it becomes an opportunity for you to upgrade to the paid version.
Again, you don't have to.
You can continue to use the free version forever, but it's an opportunity
should you feel the need to then purchase the product.
One of the models that I refer to occasionally as Razors and Blades.
The old adage used to be give away the razor and sell the blades.
We see this a lot in the computer printer industry where printers are
not free but certainly cheap and where the printer companies make
money, of course, is on the ink, because the ink is something that you will
need continually as long as you have that particular printer.
In the software world, it usually boils down to a couple of different variations.
One is to give the software away for free,
but charge for support so that if you ever actually need help
with the software, the company will be there or
the individual will be there, but you'll need to pay some amount to get help.
The other, of course, is
give the base software away for free and then charge for updates over time or
charge for add ons to the software to make the software perhaps more robust.
The shopping cart software that I happen to use on Ask Leo falls into that model.
The base shopping cart is completely free, but there are additional features
that I want to use for which I then need to pay additional
to get these additional features and modules.
Now, when we think about free software,
and I think one of the reasons people ask about free software and are concerned
about free software are the more negative aspects of what it might mean.
So far, everything I've talked about is pretty much legit and above board.
There are a couple of scenarios that aren't quite so legit.
One, I'll just refer to as bait.
The scenario is this, a company will hype a free solution to some a problem.
They'll have a free version of their product.
That free version may very well exist, but if you try to find it,
the company does such a I'll say a good job
of hiding that version on their website behind sometimes free trials or sometimes
products that are not in any way, shape or form free, that it becomes
really an exercise and frustration to find the actual free software.
They've baited you into coming to their site.
They potentially will bait you to try the free trial, which eventually ends up
costing money rather than the truly free version.
This is something that is worth being on the lookout for.
Always be skeptical when you see free
trial because free trial does not mean free.
Finally, lies.
Software manufacturers, some software vendors absolutely positively lie.
They do that in a couple of different ways.
The one that continues to annoy the heck out of me is the concept of a free scan.
You see an ad for something that says
we'll scan your computer for free and tell you if you have any malware.
You download the utility, you scan.
The scan is indeed completely free.
In a sense, they did not lie.
But pragmatically, they did.
Because if you want them to fix whatever
it is they find, well, it's going to cost you money.
The other scenario
along those very same lines is that that scan will in fact
lie and tell you about all sorts of things that have nothing
to do with your computer, but they will put it in such a way that is
so scary that you will feel obligated to pay for their product to remove these
non existent threats just because of the way that they've worded it.
Free downloads are another variation on this theme.
Yeah, the download is free,
but to actually use the product you've downloaded?
No, that too can sometimes end up costing you money.
The bottom line here is this is a very
good question to ask and always be aware of.
Whenever you are approaching free
software, try to get a sense for what the reason is.
Why is it being offered for free?
If it's truly free and open source software, there are many wonderful
packages that you can use safely and reliably.
But there are
also the other side of the coin where there are people who are trying to get you
hooked by using that word free, not because they have something free to
offer, but because they see it as a way to hook you and eventually get your money.
I hope that helps.
For comments, for updates,
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Askleo.com/17564.
I'm Leo Notenboom and this is Askleo.com.
Thanks for watching.