what do software developers benefit ?

[techno di]

we know many of programs or softwares , like Messenger , Explorer , Yahoo , Whatsup , Photoshop , Realplayer , antiviruses ... etc the list goes on .

as users we download them freely and use .. leave aside the paid softwares , there the matter is clear that the money you pay to get the software goes to the company .. but what about the very much number of free softwares ? what is the benefit ?

another question , who owns the internet over the world and who takes my monthly cost of connection ?

 

[LMiller7]

No one really owns the world wide Internet. This is much like the telephone system. There are international standards that govern it's use. Your monthly fee goes to your ISP and they use it to cover operating costs and the bandwidth used by subscribers.

 

[tom982]

Hi techno di,

People develop free software for a multitude of reasons. Some enjoy the challenge, some have made a tool for themselves that they chose to share with others, some are limited versions of paid software (just to give you a taster of the software, try before you buy essentially)... the list goes on!

No one owns the internet If you go to the highest level of the global networking system, you'll be looking at a Tier 1 network:

Tier 1 network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom

 

[pcunite]

Some software is free in exchange for information about what you're doing with the software.

 

[techno di]

Hi techno di,

People develop free software for a multitude of reasons. Some enjoy the challenge, some have made a tool for themselves that they chose to share with others, some are limited versions of paid software (just to give you a taster of the software, try before you buy essentially)... the list goes on!

No one owns the internet If you go to the highest level of the global networking system, you'll be looking at a Tier 1 network:

Tier 1 network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom

thank you
but do you mean that all the famous softwares we use daily which we just download directly without any charges .. for example if rules of the forum allows to list , Real Player , Messenger , Mozilla and other explorers , Anti Viruses are for challange purposes or any other non profit purposes ?
so what is the benefit for the developer that his product is all over the world being used and he doesnt collect a penny against ? even his or her name is not known !

and if we switch to socila networks .. you say that the story is same ?
again if rules allow to list i will list for example Facebook , Twitter , Youtube ! are not the developers of such programes collecting something ? even imolicitly like that they will charge the ISPs on grounds that your customers do make use of our product ?

 

[Britton30]

While many software has no monetary payment, you and people who use it pay for it by giving your personal info which is sold for money. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc all do this. some downloads come with bundled software you may not know about which tracks you browsing, where you buy online, who you email contacts are etc. So in that sense, they are "free" at all.

There are some which I think are free such as CCleaner or AS SSD and other benchmark software. When you buy a program they have all of your personal info to complete the transaction.

 

[tom982]

Hi techno di,

People develop free software for a multitude of reasons. Some enjoy the challenge, some have made a tool for themselves that they chose to share with others, some are limited versions of paid software (just to give you a taster of the software, try before you buy essentially)... the list goes on!

No one owns the internet If you go to the highest level of the global networking system, you'll be looking at a Tier 1 network:

Tier 1 network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tom

thank you
but do you mean that all the famous softwares we use daily which we just download directly without any charges .. for example if rules of the forum allows to list , Real Player , Messenger , Mozilla and other explorers , Anti Viruses are for challange purposes or any other non profit purposes ?
so what is the benefit for the developer that his product is all over the world being used and he doesnt collect a penny against ? even his or her name is not known !

and if we switch to socila networks .. you say that the story is same ?
again if rules allow to list i will list for example Facebook , Twitter , Youtube ! are not the developers of such programes collecting something ? even imolicitly like that they will charge the ISPs on grounds that your customers do make use of our product ?

Yep, all of those

RealPlayer = Just a sample of RealPlayer Plus
Messenger (I assume Windows Live) = Just an extra for Windows, we pay for that already
Mozilla = Open source, people program because they enjoy doing so and want to share their work with the community
Anti Virus = They're all either open source, or stripped down versions of paid for software. With the exception of MSE, which, like Messenger, is part of Windows.

Social Networks is a completely different story, they earn so, so much money! Facebook recently announced $1.59bn in revenue, is that enough for you? Twitter is forecast to hit $1bn in revenue in 2014. Google (owners of YouTube) had $50bn in revenue last year.

Even if we don't pay for a service, it doesn't mean that they don't get money from us!

Tom

 

[Alejandro85]

Many also get income by means of posting advertising, either in their websites or in the program directly. MSN for example is flooded with ads and many downloads sites and home pages are too.
Some companies also choose to give free software, but charge for support. Some variations of Linux for enterprises for instance. Linux itself is open source, therefore, free, but you must pay if you want support or any custom modifications for it.
Programs licensed as "free for personal use" but not free for corporate usage act as a sort of advertising for its own product, as also do the some limited free versions of paid software.
And of course, you always have softwares that are developed without intention of earning money, simply for making something useful and giving it away for free, most times with developers voluntarily giving their spare time for the project.

 

[techno di]

Yep, all of those

RealPlayer = Just a sample of RealPlayer Plus
Messenger (I assume Windows Live) = Just an extra for Windows, we pay for that already
Mozilla = Open source, people program because they enjoy doing so and want to share their work with the community
Anti Virus = They're all either open source, or stripped down versions of paid for software. With the exception of MSE, which, like Messenger, is part of Windows.

Social Networks is a completely different story, they earn so, so much money! Facebook recently announced $1.59bn in revenue, is that enough for you? Twitter is forecast to hit $1bn in revenue in 2014. Google (owners of YouTube) had $50bn in revenue last year.

Even if we don't pay for a service, it doesn't mean that they don't get money from us!

Tom

ok Realplayer and all windows-related softwares are pre-paid by us ... is the money we pay at the time of first installation till after say a year or 2 years- or maybe more because people may keep their systems well and away from all viruses- .. is that 'tiny amount ' with respect to the period i use my system say years .. is that amount a profit or considered a profit ? isnt it too little ?

secondly , i want to know where that profit of facebook and others come from .... personally they dont take sth from me .

 

[techno di]

While many software has no monetary payment, you and people who use it pay for it by giving your personal info which is sold for money. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc all do this. some downloads come with bundled software you may not know about which tracks you browsing, where you buy online, who you email contacts are etc. So in that sense, they are "free" at all.

There are some which I think are free such as CCleaner or AS SSD and other benchmark software. When you buy a program they have all of your personal info to complete the transaction.

i want to understand the highlighted part ... could you explain me ?
thanks for your cooperation

 

[techno di]

Many also get income by means of posting advertising, either in their websites or in the program directly. MSN for example is flooded with ads and many downloads sites and home pages are too.
Some companies also choose to give free software, but charge for support. Some variations of Linux for enterprises for instance. Linux itself is open source, therefore, free, but you must pay if you want support or any custom modifications for it.
Programs licensed as "free for personal use" but not free for corporate usage act as a sort of advertising for its own product, as also do the some limited free versions of paid software.
And of course, you always have softwares that are developed without intention of earning money, simply for making something useful and giving it away for free, most times with developers voluntarily giving their spare time for the project.

i got the last part .
i through that there must be a profit but it seems that some people develop and let people use freely .
and i got the idea of Ads .... though i don't pay but they profit .

 

[tom982]

ok Realplayer and all windows-related softwares are pre-paid by us ... is the money we pay at the time of first installation till after say a year or 2 years- or maybe more because people may keep their systems well and away from all viruses- .. is that 'tiny amount ' with respect to the period i use my system say years .. is that amount a profit or considered a profit ? isnt it too little ?

I see your point but they must be doing something right to have over $6bn in profit. MS makes the majority of their money from OEM licenses who are rumoured to pay MS $50/license, which will add up very quickly!

secondly , i want to know where that profit of facebook and others come from .... personally they dont take sth from me .

Ads, ads and more ads! Ever seen things like this on Facebook:



Companies pay Facebook to display their ads directly to their target market - for example if they were promoting student insurance then they could pay Facebook to display ads to people aged 17-25. Do you see what I mean? There's a few other things:

Facebook tests ‘boost’ and ‘advertise’ buttons instead of ‘promote’
http://mashable.com/2013/02/14/facebook-pay-promote-friends-posts/

I recently bought an iPhone 5 and have spoken to people about it in chat, and I have also used it to connect to Facebook. That's probably why I'm getting an iPhone case ad at the side!

Edit: Looking at the other ads, they're also tailored towards me. I'm a student, I stayed in a Travelodge about 3 weeks ago and I own an iPhone.

While many software has no monetary payment, you and people who use it pay for it by giving your personal info which is sold for money. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc all do this. some downloads come with bundled software you may not know about which tracks you browsing, where you buy online, who you email contacts are etc. So in that sense, they are "free" at all.

There are some which I think are free such as CCleaner or AS SSD and other benchmark software. When you buy a program they have all of your personal info to complete the transaction.

i want to understand the highlighted part ... could you explain me ?
thanks for your cooperation

How Facebook Sells Your Personal Information : Discovery News
New privacy row as Facebook begins selling access to users to boost ailing profits | Mail Online
Yes, Companies Are Harvesting – and Selling – Your Facebook Profile - ProPublica

And many more!

 

[Faladu]

I couldn't suffer through the whole thread, I'm sorry, so just giving my untainted take:

Over the years I have tried a ton of 'freeware'.

The profit model for some freeware is all the PAID to bundle stuff they put in with the install, be it some toolbar or offer of a virus scan, I've seen some with 4+ offers during the install.

Some will have various PAID ads on their homepage that could be anything.

Some freeware surely has some running ads while you use their product or can even just be as simple as something in a splash screen.

They could be using it to get you to try their other PAID products or have an ad somewhere or a timed ad or a later downloaded ad, if you allow their code to get to the internets.

My favorite way is WinPatrol's, great product so I don't mind kicking the 1 man development team some scratch any way, but you pay and you get access to his search database, gotten to, from within WinPatrol and only enabled by his code, and that is the ONLY added feature you get, but a very good one, great program if you don't have it, you probably should.

In WinPatrol's case, he probably has been paid $24.95 somewhere north of 100,000 times, and wouldn't surprise me if it was way over 1 million, do the math!

Donate-ware is a fair model too, just donate if you can afford to and find it useful, just becomes a #'s game, whether that method works and they can stay afloat or not.

 

[Britton30]

I couldn't suffer through the whole thread, I'm sorry, so just giving my untainted take:

Over

Impatient are you? http://www.sevenforums.com/microsof...-customer-support-gone-wrong.html#post2375176
You repeated most of what had been said.