It's hard enough to pass up on useless free things; free things of the valuable variety are really had to ignore. Still, for the sake of a business's operations and image, free software shouldn't be chosen on account of its price alone.
Think about safety and support issues first. When some glitch or bit of malware is discovered, do you want a paid team of 100 people working on a defense, or two or three guys who try to get around to it in their spare time?
Then take compatibility into account. If the free software works with its own file types, will you be able to effectively communicate with other businesses and customers?
Lastly, there's the matter of professionalism. At this point, if any "real" company sends emails from an address ending with "@hotmail.com," it's going to raise some eyebrows. Using free software may (if someone notices) put you in the same position.
Scarlet Pruitt considers a few more cons, but we'll leave you with these ideas. Saving money is a great goal, and all sorts of decent stuff can be gotten for free; however, some corners just can't be cut.
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Comments
It's always bad to generalize.
Writer doesn't know linux.
Anybody who uses the incredibly good GPL software on Linux will laugh themselves silly after reading. Even on WIndows many users use Firefox, for example, because it is so much more secure than Internet Explorer. Personally, using Linux exclusively for the last 4 years (Fedora Core in particular) I have not run into a single piece of free software that was problematic. BUT when I used to try Windows shareware etc I never found a piece of software that was any good at all! (I found Firefox after my switchover to Linux). At least the writer put sometimes in the title.
Love the freebies!
There are many good FREE applications out there...
There are many more. The freebies usually have a forum full of answers to problems that arise. Some may need a tweek here or there but I'm not afraid to use them.
I've found that scripts and software that I paid anywhere from $9.00 to $99.00 give me the most headaches. The worst was a $300. classified ad site!
Free Email
I think a better title for this article would have been, "Free Email for Business is Questionable".
I agree that I never take anyone working from a free email account very seriously. To me it is like a blogger who can't get his own TLD.
You have to be able to invest that much money to get past my sniff test.
think before
i think use free softwares but think before downloading them
Best programes are often the free ones.
I disagree with this post.
I have found over and over again that little programes that do one thing, and do it well are almost always free, and do a great job. If you have a problem nd write to the owner they often more than happy to work out whatever the problem is since this program is their baby and they are happy to have someone to beta test it.
As for the @hotmail.com email accounts thats a whole different subject and shouldn't be part of this post.
Lynny
Well...
I can agree that free sometimes makes things look cheap and nasty. Nothing is worse than getting a business email from @hotmail.com! Okay, so perhaps that incredimail stuff can be worse!
Free software is another story however. I agree that it is often better to get an "out of the box" solution as you do usually have support. This is often overlooked when using a free software solution that the neighbours kid setup for you. For a small business sometimes going on the cheap can be a massive problem. For a large company that will have an IT department, then free isn't a problem as they will most likely have someone on hand to maintain and repair.
It all depends on which market you are looking at. While I don't agree with the article, I think the headline does ring fairly true... sometimes.
Free Software
The ultimate free software is OpenOffice. Why pay for Microsoft Office when you can get the same thing for free. www.openoffice.org I still think the best software is shareware, not freeware. The concept of try before you buy is still a good one.
I just found a great package that backs up my website. Backupawy I used it for 2 months and then bought it. There are free ones out there that do the same, but I found bugs in almost all of them.
www.zdnet.com has tons of freeware,shareware, etc. for almost any application.
If I see hotmail yahoo or gmail on a biz email address, I shun that company. You can get custom email address for $2.95 a month or less.
for example
Well, one of your examples, Joe, is a good case of 'getting what you pay for'.
http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/forums/
I have the free lma directory on several websites. Took many hours to install, tweak, populate, maintain...and now the only support -the public forum is awol...has been for awhile with no explanation. The owner is onto something new...promoting worm farming or something...and my link directories are spitting out gobbledygook. It's been a little while since I installed them, but I'm guessing that my directories are dependent on a file that Duncan has deleted. What a mess.
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