What Did You Expect? It’s Free!

By Ryan Majeau | Posted October 14th, 2011 in Faronics blogs for

We all want the best things in life. Those are free, right? Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Many of you opt for the no price tag option (I don’t blame you, I would!), but when it comes to free there’s always some kind of price. Is it worth it?

Not to say anything free lacks quality. Many free products deliver significant value to us as consumers. Take Facebook. Facebook is free and always will be. More than 800 million people have an account with more than 50% of them logging in each day.

We all benefit from the site—keeping in contact with friends, family and events. Soon we can even time travel with it! The best part? It’s free!

But then anytime Facebook pulls a redesign, there’s an uproar. “What is this? Things are different! I don’t like it. How could they do this to me?” —a non-paying customer.

Facebook isn’t out to anger anyone, but it really can do whatever it wants (within reason). You aren’t paying for it. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. Good luck trying though!

Then there’s freeware. For years many companies relied on Windows SteadyState to keep their computers running the way they should. Then Microsoft sort of forgot about it. Then they discontinued it.

The decision left many companies struggling to look for a SteadyState alternative. The only problem was other options came with a price tag. After using a free solution for years this was a hard pill to swallow. How could they do this? Well, your company’s savings didn’t benefit Microsoft. Buying Windows 7 would.

You get what you pay for. If you don’t pay, you might not get what you want. Is the grief worth the lack of a price tag? If you said yes, just remember there will be other costs. Roll with the punches. The choice is yours!