Random Synapses

Giveaway Of The Day (GAOTD) is an initiative I highly appreciate. It allows people to use commercial software, free of charge. There’s a new application available every day, and I’m among the first to see what they’re offering next. The catch? You must download, activate and install the application within 24 hours after it was published. You can’t install it later, even if you had it activated before.

Everybody wins. Customers get fully-featured, commercial software, completely free of charge (of course, without updates or upgrades or other services) — this is like an unlimited trial. Software publishers get a new base of curious potential customers encouraged to try the applications without time or feature constraints. Many of these trial customers do buy the license later on.

Applications vary greatly, from screensavers to DVD burners, personal information managers and system maintenance tools. It’s a free, competitive market out there, and inevitably you will spot some commercial application that does something you could easily do manually or with the help of other free tools. For example, changing the icon of a folder is a feature built into Windows XP, yet some company thought they could sell an application to do the same thing. It’s the foundation principle of modern economy: let the market decide what’s worth paying for and what isn’t.

People visiting GAOTD can leave comments and rate the applications they download. Power users, like me, do know freely available tools that do the same thing or even outperform the commercially applications distributed free of charge on GAOTD. And these people communicate their opinions on GAOTD for others’ benefit. Why limit yourself to one solution, when you have the luxury of choosing from several alternatives, also free of charge, to find what’s best for you?

And now we’re getting to what’s bothering me. There are a bunch of people on GAOTD that cannot accept any negative comment or a proposed alternative. Somehow their freedom of choice and expression dissolve in the presence of the word “free.” If GAOTD offers something for free, they feel compelled to get it and be thankful for it. Goodbye personal preferences and judgment. These people become extremely aggressive, rude and intolerant, calling others “whiners,” “rich,” “spoiled” and such.

Someone told me once that the most powerful word on the Internet is “FREE.” It’s an attention grabber, something to attract the crowd’s interest and bring some potential customers. But I never imagined that some people are blinded by this word and become unable to think for themselves and decline something they don’t like, want or need.

The extreme case is now the usual screensaver offered on weekends by GAOTD. It’s been many years since the technical reason of having a screen saver ceased to exist. Personally, when I use the computer, it doesn’t have time for the screensaver to start. Moreover, I fail to understand the people who get a computer just to stare at it waiting for an animated screensaver to run. But hey, it’s a free world and if they want to waste their lives staring at screensavers, so be it. Even more, if they want to pay for one. But so should they accept my opinion that most screensavers are utter crap. Commercial or not, free of charge or not, crap is still crap.

In conclusion, I’m now going to have my own giveaway. I’m confident it will be extremely appealing to some of GAOTD’s people who love anything free, just because it’s free. Here goes. Normally, I charge everyone $79.95 for kissing my butt. However, anyone who comments back and mentions the word “whiner” can kiss my butt for free. And don’t you dare telling me that other people’s butts can be kissed for free, you whiners!!!

Disclaimer: Not available in all regions. Limited to one kiss per household. Must be 18 or older. While supplies last. The provider of this offer reserves the right to decline any request. Further terms and conditions may apply, and these may change without prior notice. By kissing my butt, you agree to assume full responsibility over legal or sanitary consequences, and to exonerate me of any liability. This offer is not a subscription.