OT: Why Free? What's your deal?

[Jeff]

This post is directed at those who ask for free stuff. It happens all the
time in this group:

e.g., "I want some super duper component that does a bunch of amazing
things. It's gotta have x and y and z. Oh, and it don't forget w. And I want
it for free. Any recommendations?"

There's all those posts that appear here routinely where you apparently got
your free component and then struggled with it for hours and hours and
became frustrated and/or angry. You actually *complain* about lack of
technical documentation or support. FreeTextBox (or something like that) is
one that regularly fits this bill.

What's wrong with you guys!?! You could have spent a few bucks and avoided
all that hassle.

What's your deal? Are you so poor that you have more time than money? I'm
really curious.

 

[KMA]

Jeff,

I agree that you don't get any rights to complain about something you've
obtained for free. Except , of course, your right to get your money back!

But as to why free components are popular. I think it's because the
licencing options from the vendors doesn't suit everybody. I don't mind
paying for a component, but it becomes an administrative hassle if you have
to pay for each end user licence. Vendors tends to assume that you want
either just to have one copy on your desktop (and charge you 20 bucks) or
that you want to redistribute to 10 million users so 10, 000 bucks is
apropriate for them. Fact is, until you start selling your products you
often can't determine the kind of licence you need. It's easy to fall foul
of copyright legislation so to prevent this we often go for a "free"
solution, even if the component chosen requires extra integration effort.

 

[Brian Cryer]

This post is directed at those who ask for free stuff. It happens all the
time in this group:

e.g., "I want some super duper component that does a bunch of amazing
things. It's gotta have x and y and z. Oh, and it don't forget w. And I
want it for free. Any recommendations?"

Isn't a newsgroup supposed to be a forum for people to exchange ideas and
get advice? If I don't know how to do something or don't want to reinvent
the wheel then isn't it reasonable to ask?

There's all those posts that appear here routinely where you apparently
got your free component and then struggled with it for hours and hours and
became frustrated and/or angry. You actually *complain* about lack of
technical documentation or support. FreeTextBox (or something like that)
is one that regularly fits this bill.

Totally agree.

What's wrong with you guys!?! You could have spent a few bucks and avoided
all that hassle.

What's your deal? Are you so poor that you have more time than money? I'm
really curious.

Just because you pay for something doesn't make it better. There are many
free products out there which are just as good as the costly ones. Granted
free stuff rarely comes with any support, but that's one of the many reasons
for newsgroups and other forums.

 

[Guest]

Here. Let me give you a hug. That's better now...