The Wonders of Free Stuff

Question

So there I was, having set up my wife's new PC, but not yet getting a network printer (or a device to share what we already have). Obviously, the first thing I have to help her with has to be printed rom my PC.
In the past, I would have simply used a diskette, and later, a portable hard drive, and later still, a thumb drive. I might have even e-mailed it, which isn't exactly free because I pay for our domains. But very close.
Now, I just sign her up for a free DropBox account and it all happens in the background. No more sneakernet, and no need to share drives, (leaving things open to other problems). And no need for a NAS. (Not yet, anyway)
That is just one example of free stuff on the Internet. The amazing thing is that so much of what we use every day is basically free. Yes, we pay for Internet access. Even if we use a library PC, someone is paying for it. But just like network television, the amount of free things that can be paid for by advertising is just astounding. The thing is, I don't even see the advertising on Dropbox, which makes it all the more amazing to me.
The free Type Styles at Style4Type are more along the lines of easily understood free stuff. He entices you with really great free stuff, and if you really like it, for only a little money you can have the entire thing. Same with Video Copilot. Training for free and if you happen to buy something, even better.
The Creative Cow site is a different kind of free. The advertising is in your face. But, to be honest, I don't really even notice it much anymore except when it is something I might actually want to buy. But the quality of the training is remarkable.
The best kind of free with advertising in your face is Google, I think. The ads can be set to pretty much just be stuff I wish I could buy. Which may actually be worse but seems better. It is easier to ignore clothing ads than camera ads, or tripods, or big screen TVs. The things that Google does with maps, by letting me set up a location on my PC and then automatically have it appear on my phone so that the GPS can get me there? Wonderful. I use it almost every single day for work.
Remember back when Curt Wrigley was spending a fortune on bandwidth for his tutorials? Now YouTube is free and we don't even blink at putting up huge files, at 1080p using a high bitrate to maintain quality. For FREE!
I guess that every now and then, we all ought to take a moment and consider the advantages of advertising over paying outright for services. It really is a different world than the one I thought I was going to see when I grew up. My only real complaint is this: Where the heck is my flying car? I was promised a flying car back in 1959. I found the drawings I made when we cleaned out my mother's place after she passed. There were lots of flying cars. Detroit has had enough time. Where is my flying car???

Answer 1

Free CC would require some hefty advertising to make it pay.
Would you use it for free if they insisted on watermarking your video or photos? Just a little watermark. Nothing intrusive?
Or, how about if you had to watch an advertisement, like on YouTube, every time you opened the app, or every 15 minutes of use?
I think I would rather just pay them. But then again, I pay for cable TV. Some people don't and perhaps they would be OK with the YouTubeization of CC?
But hey! That would mean they had a choice, and people are big on choice, right?