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"When the item is free, you are the product" is the lesson of this past decade. I am at least repeatedly learning this over and over again.
by gravypod 11y ago
"When the item is free, you are the product" is the lesson of this past decade. I am at least repeatedly learning this over and over again.
- Zikes 11y agoThat doesn't necessarily hold true for FOSS, though.
- gravypod 11y agoFOSS isn't free. You are being "paid for" by other people donating their time to make many, many people happy. That's at least my way of looking at it.
- the_af 11y agoBut the user is not the product in the case of FOSS. No-one is taking advantage of you as is the case when you, the user, are marketed to advertisers.
- DrJokepu 11y agoOh man, it's absolutely true for FOSS, unless you develop FOSS purely because of idealogical reasons, Richard Stallman-style. FOSS development can be turned into reputation and popularity, which can be turned into cash. It's much easier to get your startup off the ground (or find a good job or decent clients as a contractor, etc.) if you have 10,000 Twitter followers, because you write popular FOSS.
- embik 11y agoWhich is exactly how FOSS is supposed to work. You give away something free of charge and available to everyone and you're getting something back from your users. That doesn't make the software's user "the product" though. In your case the developer is making himself the product he tries to sell, not the users. This is really not comparable to advertisement and data collection.
- takluyver 11y agoBut the user is not really 'the product' in any meaningful way. The developer's reputation from having +1 user does not have a negative impact on the user like advertising does. Telling people not to trust anything they don't have to pay for seems a really obvious footgun for FOSS.
- joshmanders 11y agoAccording to this page[0] the item is $119. That's not free. [0]: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-10-Home/productID.319937100 http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-...
- gravypod 11y agoIt was sold to the public as a "free" upgrade. "Free" in that context is what I am referring to.
- mtgx 11y agoYup, they are having their cake and eating it, too. Free for 10% of the PC users, the rest 90% will pay for it, but because of those 10% we're also going to serve everyone ads, too.
- gravypod 11y agoYea, and what I suspect you will probably see over the next few days is people saying that "it was free so it was ok!"
- draw_down 11y agoYes, this is a cliche now.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> "When the item is free, you are the product" is the lesson of this past decade. A more accurate lesson would be, "if the item is free, and often if it is not, you are paying for it in something other than money, or are receiving benefits incidentally to someone else paying for it." Win 10 isn't free.
- gravypod 11y agoI'd agree that is a better way of putting it.