4 ms·

I mean you get software for free, isn't that value? I know e.g. tons of people / companies using Terraform that get enormous value out of that without ever payi

I mean you get software for free, isn't that value? I know e.g. tons of people / companies using Terraform that get enormous value out of that without ever paying for it. Personally I run Gitlab CE for my company and that also gave me tons of value for free, so I don't think it's a trick. If you curtail your software so much that no one can use it without paying you won't get much traction, you have to provide something that's useful enough for 90 % of the users without paying.

jrochkind1 4y ago
I'm talking about the scenario you describe where the free version is meant to lock in the customer and funnel them to the paid version. I mean, you just said: "companies can get locked into a product without knowning it and without you doing any real sales effort." You can see how that sounds like trying to trick the consumer? But you don't see trying to get companies locked into a product without knowing it as a trick? I guess thats the normally quiet part out loud. As a customer/consumer, getting tricked into getting locked into a product, where you intentionally try to make the free version _not_ good enough for me (but not obvious to me at first) so I have to go to the paid once locked in -- which is what the OP is describing too, I think you accurately described it -- this isn't feeling like a benefit to me? But ok, maybe there's some benefit, let's go with that for a second. That benefit of the "freemium" model, the free initial offering, is there with or without the free initial offer having an open source license. The reason to actually give it an open source license (or something you claim is open source) is just because it's good marketting, it makes it even easier to lock companies into the product without knowing it, because of their wrong assumptions about what open source means?
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jrochkind1 4y ago

I'm talking about the scenario you describe where the free version is meant to lock in the customer and funnel them to the paid version. I mean, you just said: "companies can get locked into a product without knowning it and without you doing any real sales effort." You can see how that sounds like trying to trick the consumer? But you don't see trying to get companies locked into a product without knowing it as a trick? I guess thats the normally quiet part out loud. As a customer/consumer, getting tricked into getting locked into a product, where you intentionally try to make the free version _not_ good enough for me (but not obvious to me at first) so I have to go to the paid once locked in -- which is what the OP is describing too, I think you accurately described it -- this isn't feeling like a benefit to me? But ok, maybe there's some benefit, let's go with that for a second. That benefit of the "freemium" model, the free initial offering, is there with or without the free initial offer having an open source license. The reason to actually give it an open source license (or something you claim is open source) is just because it's good marketting, it makes it even easier to lock companies into the product without knowing it, because of their wrong assumptions about what open source means?

deleted 4y ago
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