[gabmartini]

This is definitely an article that hit (some) right ideas based on incorrect assumptions or an inaccurate historical context. Don't know if I would recommend it to a broader audience.

tl;dr: If the product is free, you are the product.

[UncleEntity]

> If the product is free, you are the product.

I used to contribute to a GPL licensed program which is apparently doing pretty well in its industry these days and is just free. They pay developers a living wage and have a plug-in ecosystem which also generates income for people to develop them (I assume, don’t know if people live off plug-in income).

[trinovantes]

Even if it's not free, you may still be the product (Windows)

[marginalia_nu]

Isn't windows sort of quasi-free these days? They've been aggressively pushing free version upgrades for Windows on me several times.

[trinovantes]

Upgrade is free but you still need an original copy

[Jensson]

But if you are resistant to advertisements then many products are free for real. For example, free games are "not free" since they push you to buy microtransactions, but if you can easily resist that sort of temptation then the product is completely free to you. This isn't especially rare either, most people playing free games doesn't pay anything for it so for most people those games are really free.

So a revised statement would be "If the product is free, some users are the product.", as many users aren't easily manipulated and therefore don't become products.