On more than one occasion, I’ve had people suggest I offer my product for free. That is, completely for free, forever, with no theoretical limit to the free support that I’m also expected to give my constituents.
Okay…how do I say this? The Free Software Movement is composed of acts of charity. IT IS NOT A BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY. Everyone likes it (I know I sure do) when an entity, especially a large entity like Microsoft, decides to release something for free, like Express versions of their code compilers.
But how many people were petitioning Microsoft to release .NET Express for free? Surely people weren’t filing grievances, were they? Grievances for what?
Let’s take a look at how a hacker and a CEO approach offering their own software, meticulously scheduled for release with time-sensitive deadlines, and painstakingly developed on the company’s own dollar, for absolutely nothing:
1) Hacker: There’s a lot of software out there. I’m looking for something that serves my needs exactly. Not bloated, not invasive to my computer, not requiring half a zillion legal strings attached, not something that is going to make my computer vulnerable to attack. Something I can easily configure, something I can manipulate to exactly the ends I wish.
2) CEO: We see great opportunity for sales of the product. Seek out target markets, perform case studies, and assess how much individuals are willing to pay for the products we offer. Constantly seek out new business areas, new audiences, and serve their needs as appropriate. But whatever we do, NEVER, as a matter of business principle, simply GIVE away something off which we can make money!
Not much room for common ground, it would seem. It might seem disappointing, but the truth is, each person is connected directly or indirectly to both of these roles. You work for a company (or you own it), so you have to mind the store or ultimately conduct yourself in ways that contribute to minding the store. But you also want the best deal for your company. So, if you can get something for free, by all means, get it for free instead of spending money on it!
When Sun releases the Java runtime for free, why are they doing this? How does it benefit Microsoft by releasing .NET Express for free? For the same reasons companies give away free stuff at conferences at their booths. For the same reasons supermarkets let you sample wares instead of making you purchase something you’ve never heard of before. For the same reasons drug dealers don’t make you pay full price for the first hit.
There are two major reasons why businesses will release their software for free. The first reason is that they get more business that way (more name recognition, more people trying the product, better feedback for improvements, low-cost form of advertising, etc). The second reason is that the marketability of the product is deemed insufficient, yielding a nothing-is-lost philosophy in releasing the software at little or no cost.
Should BARfly be free? Well, considering it’s the only product like itself in the whole world, the answer is no. Economic scarcity dictates that a product in low supply should have a proportionally higher cost. But conversely, a product in low demand should also have a proportionally lower cost.
Of course, none of this is any reason not to develop free software. I’ve got plenty of that you can download at my personal site. My video game Vintage Hyperactive is one such example. It’s a simple project for a hobbyist, to be done in one’s spare time. That’s the “hacker” way of looking at it.
The “CEO” way of looking at it, of course, comes to the exact same conclusion: can I make money off VH? Probably not. So the game remains free!
BUT…if I make an iPhone version of VH, people might buy it. So that version would NOT be free.
Make sense?