The curse of the free

One of the toughest problems for IT businesses is the fact computer users, both consumers and small businesses, expect many products and services for free. This makes it difficult for anyone trying to make a living in the IT industry.

A recent question on our IT Queries site is a good example. A lady asked what free programs she can use to remove popups.

You can see the problem here. The customer asks a free advice site for a free program to fix the problems caused by her grandkids looking for free music.

Now I'm not criticising this lady, she's just doing what millions of computer and Internet users do every day.

Of course, this is nothing new, even Bill Gates found himself dealing with this thirty years ago.

Nick Carr wrote in the Guardian a few days back about the Internet increasing inequity and hollowing out the middle classes. I'm not sure this is the case, I suspect it's the free mentality that makes it harder for the smaller operators and contractors make a living.

For the moment, the big boys prosper and some of that money trickles down to those they take over. But I'd suggest the big boy's business models are just as unsustainable as the little guy. What's kept these businesses going were surging stock markets, forgiving investors and cheap money.

Now the party in the stock and money markets is over it will be interesting to see how this pans out for the industry. My guess is some of the bigger players will suffer just as much as the little guys have.

In the long term the free mentality has to change; because there's no way IT workers can earn a living if customers expect everything for free.