I can't be the only one noticing that we are getting lesser and lesser of the free stuff especially in the Saas space.

because now everyone is fixed on the SaaS-stuff. there's no need to give out free samples anymore.

well, no shit, the VC cornucopia has dried up

Yeah, that's by design. This has been a corporate strategy for a long time. Give stuff for free (often at a loss, but not sure here) and hook as many people as you can, then slowly make them pay.

Its a bait&switch

@Hazarth I don't understand that very well. If its MIT licensed, someone could just start a fork.

I tend to think the other way around, making it free for long time just doesn't work maybe?

@tosensei Sorry I should have said not just saas, but software in general.

@jassole I mean forking is all and well, but for many people a fork is useless, they need the servers that only the original service provider can supply. And giving free stuff there can create the hook.

Ofc then you have service that don't even give you the full fork and the main features are locked behind a license, which I suppose is nothing new either?

dunno. To be fair for a long time I'm thinking about just making everything myself and making it FOSS. I think the FOSS community could easily out-bid everyone and everything if we wanted. It's just that what we get for free is often "good enough" already... But if they keep pushing the envelope and making everything more expensive and less available eventually someone will make a free self-hosted alternative. I think that's the future. It's just not now

Not only in software, even heated seats from BMW are subscription.

Now, you would say "Hey, fuckers! I paid for that heating element under my chair!".

No, that's not what BMW says, the people that DID pay for their heating paid yours as well. They paid, not you. Crazy huh?

That's good thing, creates more jobs for software plebs. xD

Pricing it free never made sense to me.

Although I took great advantage of it.