From: MikeE@ster.invalid   
      
   Marion wrote:   
   > While aphorisms have truth deeply embedded, more often than not they don't.   
   >   "There┬ no such thing as a free lunch."   
   >   "You get what you pay for."   
   >   "Cheap is expensive."   
   >   "If you're not paying for the product, you are the product."   
   >   "When something is free, ask what it's costing you in privacy."   
   >   "Convenience of freeware is just surveillance in disguise."   
   >   "Privacy is dead, and free social media holds the smoking gun."   
      
   While I did bring up one of those, while NOT espousing it, the concept   
   is NOT the 'truth' of the aphorism, the concept is that when someone is   
   giving you a free service that THEY are paying for, you should hold some   
   skepticism.   
      
   It makes sense for privacy services to charge for the services they   
   provide. It also makes sense for /some/ privacy services to provide a   
   free version of their services as a method to promote a product they sell.   
      
   The *service* industry is a different thing than the open source world,   
   in which someone or a group of someones start w/ an open-source licensed   
   'thing', which thus requires than anything they DO w/ it must also be   
   open-sourced. So the concept that 'software wants to be free' (as in   
   information, not beer) applies. The someone takes something they are   
   given and tries to improve on it and give it back so that others can do   
   the same.  There is some altruism working there.   
      
      
   --   
   Mike Easter   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)