5 ms·
Ask HN: Why are so many great things free?
There seems to be an abundance of really great services that are offered free of charge, or have a free tier that fulfils my needs perfectly and offers no incentive to upgrade. Examples include Surge [0], Netlify [1], and Migadu[2], which I just discovered from the front page of HN. Why do so many services offer a really good product free of charge? Do they benefit at all, or is it about giving to the community?
[0] https://surge.sh/
[1] https://www.netlify.com/
[2] https://www.migadu.com/en/index.html
- fforflo 10y agoIf it's free, the product is you
- brudgers 10y agoThat's the case sometimes. It's not the case with something like GNU.
- sharemywin 10y agoI disagree. Technically the aggregate of "you" is the product. in the case of GNU it propagates via free labor. In aggregate people contribute to the product providing free labor.
- brudgers 10y agoI use GNU and don't contribute to any of it's projects. The same is true of the Linux kernel and many other pieces of software. By and large, my non-contribution to GNU and other projects is a lack of technical expertise. Beyond that it is mostly a function of not being embedded in a community of contributors. However, I'll admit that some small fraction of it is due to a lack of effort on my part.
- sharemywin 10y agojust like a bunch of people don't click on ads.
- meric 10y agoYou're right, air is free. Thank God.