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If something is free, you're not the customer, you're the product being sold. I'm consistently amazed by people who are surprised when a free product either (1
by JohnTHaller 14y ago
If something is free, you're not the customer, you're the product being sold.
I'm consistently amazed by people who are surprised when a free product either (1) switches to a paid model, (2) has service issues or (3) goes under.
- Karunamon 14y ago>If something is free, you're not the customer, you're the product being sold. A pithy saying, but not much more. I run a minecraft server for free, are you implying that I sell my players?
- derekp7 14y agoOut of curiosity, do you have a way of making money off your minecraft server (even if it's just enough to pay for bandwidth)? If not, then that saying still holds for commercial giveaways. Therefore it can probably be supplemented with "(community projects excepted)".
- Karunamon 14y agoDonations, actually. It still operates at a net loss, but the costs are offset. But to make it a bit more relevant, where would you put Canonical on this list? Ubuntu is given away for free, they don't sell their users (with the very arguable exception of the Amazon lens fiasco), yet they make their money by selling professional services (Landscape and the like).
- derekp7 14y agoI would still place that as a community project (or community service project), which is used as a loss leader for their commercial (support) offering. And, according to recent controversy surrounding their desktop search, some would argue that they are moving to their users being the product.