Observations on free things.

Recently with Spring cleanup I decided to list some things I had around the place in the Classifieds for Free to anyone who would come and get them. It was interesting into how people responded to the ads. One ad was for my Late Fathers extensive Library of Theological reference books. He wished these books to go to someone on his passing that could enjoy having them and get usage from them. The other ad was for 2 - 19in. CRT monitors that worked fine but I no longer needed.

Had a lot of calls for the books and was struck by how many people approached with questions that were akin to needed to be convinced, like there was a sale price and not that they were free. Many callers even acted as they would be doing me a favor by coming and getting them. None of these I gave much encouragement to. The CRT's got a couple of calls as well and the same type of questions came up (beyond model and whether they worked since that was listed in the ad). It struck me as strange that it took a sales approach to give something away as Free. In the end the books went to an older couple where the wife was into Theological studies (Sunday school teacher) , but I still have the monitors (I guess they are just too obsolete).

I guess it is that even being free people see a price involved of taking the time to acquire the Free object. Linux adoption has the same problems I expect. People need to convince themselves (or accept a Sales pitch) that using Linux is worth the effort. So what price free?

In our society, I think two ideas prevail about free things. One is that nothing is really free. "Free" time in a condo or resort actually involves sitting through a long sales session. A "free" club card at the local supermarket actually involves discounting overpriced goods and giving personal information that will be sold. You can get a "free" tire, but the real price is buying three other tires, possibly at an inflated price. The other perception is that if it really is free, it must be worthless, junk in other words. Open a checking account and receive a "free" radio that is worth maybe $1.25 if you bought it at the five and dime, so probably cost the bank maybe twenty-five cents and only works for a week, plus you had to buy $2.00 worth of batteries to feed it. So when they become interested, they then try to figure out what the hidden cost really is, or is the item in reality worthless. Because of lousy marketing practices, lack of trust and cynicism is prevalent.

For Linux, this means that, coupled with both fear of the unknown and inertia, Linux has to prove it's worth and that it is indeed free. If folks fear "backdoors" that will open their computers to vicious and unscrupulous criminals looking to steal their personal information, or that Linux is a piece of junk that comes with no support, then there will be reluctance to adopt. As in so many things, perception is more important than reality.

bozo wrote:

.... So when they become interested, they then try to figure out what the hidden cost really is, or is the item in reality worthless. Because of lousy marketing practices, lack of trust and cynicism is prevalent.

...

Being a cynic myself I can understand that.

Maybe they were scared you're mule would get them.