The Real Meaning of Free

Free. It's something we see everyday, whether it's buy-one-get-one free, free samples, free with purchase, etc.

Today, Microsoft announced that they would be giving Windows 7 away free for the first year.

This, in my opinion, is disturbing. What this tells me is that Vista (the successor to XP) is an absolute and utter flop, and Microsoft knows people are starting to look elsewhere for their operating system.

Personally, I run both Ubuntu and Linux Mint for my main machines, Windows XP for my media centers (running MediaPortal, and Ubuntu Server for my home server. I use Linux in my day-to-day computing because the software for it is free, easy to install, and much more robust than any other basic operating system install.

But with Win7 being given away for "free", it gives people an option to upgrade at essentially no cost. The real cost, however, is Microsoft transitioning people to something new that doesn't *really* do anything better than XP.

It is understandable that MS would do this to try and push the newer, shinier OS, as it helps lock people into the Win32 platform and push their real money-makers, like Office. I just hope people see through this ploy and continue to look for software that simplifies their lives and increases competition in the marketplace.

Conversely, Ubuntu (its derivatives, upstream distributions, and Linux in general) is 100% "don't pay for anything but necessary support" free. What this means in real terms is that only if or when I have a problem do I need to either browse Google (or forums) for the answer, or pay Canonical (Ubuntu's corporate side) for support. In almost four years of using Ubuntu/Linux exclusively for my desktop and server I have never once had to call Canonical for support. The software is that functional, and when it isn't, there's a great community to help you fix it.

So the real cost of Win7 being free for a year is immeasurable, as there are all kinds of upgrade costs associated with moving to a new platform (such as new Office install, upgrading programs, learning a new interface). If you are going to "upgrade" to Win7 and be faced with these barriers, why not give Ubuntu (or another distribution) a try? At least the cost will be less!

-Steve