Comments on: Ad Supported Software

Ad Supported Software

tboz — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 08:55:59 -0800

Ad Supported Software It started with email, and now it's everything from IM, maps and photo galleries. But, free network management software? Can this work?

By: thirteenkiller

thirteenkiller — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:29:49 -0800

Wow, this hotmail thing looks pretty cool!

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:56:32 -0800

Can this work? It didn't seem to help the Dodge Neon...

By: shoepal

shoepal — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:00:48 -0800

Can free Pepsi be far behind?!

By: Plutor

Plutor — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:35:25 -0800

Arguably all of your examples besides Spiceworks are ad-supported services, not just software. And was Hotmail (or even some online email) really the first ad-supported service?

By: snofoam

snofoam — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:51:13 -0800

if a company's budget is too tight to purchase network management software, isn't it conceivable that said company would have less than 100% valid licensing for software on their network? and, if that's true, couldn't spiceworks notify software manufacturers in exchange for a cut of the money they would get from suing companies with licensing issues? obviously, they spiceworks would have to wait until they had a large enough user base first because everyone would stop using it once the lawsuits started.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:01:09 -0800

everyone would stop using it once the lawsuits started I think you underestimate the shortsightedness of the kind of company that would be using ad-supported infrastructure in the first place.

By: EiderDuck

EiderDuck — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:27:14 -0800

I thought the link for email in the OP would go to the old, ad-supported version of Eudora.

By: hoborg

hoborg — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 12:37:34 -0800

Can this work? It didn't seem to help the Dodge Neon... See, it's not an ad for Spiceworks, so I'm not sure your comparison is entirely accurate. Ad-supported software evidently did work for some companies, so we'll see where this goes.