WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FREE SOFTWARE

July 2005

Primer: Freeware By: Richard Daniels

Back in the early 90's when the Web was first becoming something more than a large bulletin board service for academics, people routinely exchanged ideas and small applications as a means to move the entire community forward. In the subsequent decade, commerce came on board, expanded and intensified the Internet, and destroyed the sense of innocence and trust that existed in the past. Now the user is faced with a myriad of conflicting ads and announcements, about the good and the bad software available. In the midst of this cacophony, there are still people out there designing and building some awesome free software.

The trick is to be able to sort the good from the bad.

There are some dreadful misconceptions out there about freeware and the open source movement. Some of the traditional, Fortune 500 software houses have contributed to those misconceptions, as it is in there best interests to have you believe they are the only answer. They are not the only answer.

The secret to finding the right stuff, is to understand the money. Altruism, has been hunted to near extinction on the Internet, and everything ultimately comes back to money. The old adage that nothing is really free, is still pretty much true. What has changed is the economic model that is used to generate the bucks.

There are two basic types of freeware that we will discuss in this article. One of these economic models are good for the consumer; one will deliver a world of heaven or hurt.

Open Source is the first model up for examination. The folks who toil away to make the various Open Source applications come from many countries and lifestyles, but all are committed to the creation of a solution for the masses. Published under a License called GNU General Public License this allows the software to be distributed for free with the source code. The money is not in the software, but in the services that surround the software. The services could include support, customized extensions, and bridges to enterprise applications. Good examples of this class of software would be Linux, and Open Office (used to create this document) . I have yet to see an Open Source Application that did not deliver all that it promised. You are safe to download and install these applications.

Freeware is a more complicated situation. The reasons for creation vary widely, but the five most common reasons are as follows.

To showcase the vendors talents, and generate traffic on the company web site. The freebie is usually a small utility, If you like the freebie you are more apt to take a chance on some of the other offerings in the catalog. These companies tend to be small start ups with reasonable prices.
To showcase the students talents. Bright young students reaching the end of school will post up a small application to differentiate themselves from the masses, and hopefully snag that dream job.
As an introduction. The business plan in this model calls for a year or so of losses while the new application becomes wildly popular in beta-mode. When there is sufficient buzz, they move on to release 1.0 and begin charging, or they release version 1.1 with enhanced features that must be purchased, while leaving the free version out there. AVG by Grisoft is a good example of this.
As a front to get something else on to your computer. This is a nasty one, and one that gives freeware a bad name. The applications are usually really cool toolbars, or games. Buried in the click-ware license is clause letting the vendor install another piece of software on your machine. The software in question could be a browser hijack that will generate pop up adds, and skew your search results, or it could allow the vendor to resell your unused computer cycles to other people. Even when you deinstall the game or tool bar, the hidden application remains.
Hostage ware is a new class and is technically illegal. The vendor tricks you into installing a supposed security application that encrypts and locks up your data until you send in some money to get the unlock key. These guys are hard to find, and many users pay the money, because they can't wait for the police to find the miscreants,

So given these various types of freebie, how does the user get the good and avoid the bad?

Look at the economic model. The vendors web site should give you an idea of how they are being funded. If you can see one of the first three models at work you are probably on pretty safe turf. If you cannot see how the money is being made, Google search the product name with additional keywords like Problems, and spyware. Look beyond the first few hits in the results page. If you see anything that looks hinky, don't take a chance. The cost of having someone like me clean up your machine will exceed any savings you might have received if the application had been legitimate.

To recap, there are lots of free applications out here on the web, and most of them can be a great benefit to the Small Business, but be careful and do your homework before you download.