text: is anybody afraid of free stuff re: firewalls, spam detectors etc...on the internet ? why are they free ? reason : i have been caught before and gave me lots of problems. so why free and who benefits ? most of time people are afraid of free stuff via internet because usually they have been victim of scams. however, there is good free stuff out there. the reason being:  1. advertising with your consent. usually ones that are with bad intentions install adware, spyware, tracking software, key loggers, and etc. good ones are ones that they want you to use their product and promote them by letting others. good example of good softwares are,  www.firefox.com : less error/issues than internet explorer.  www.openoffice.org : it's same as microsoft office, except you don't pay for it.  linux os, typically for people who doesn't want to pay for os software.(i think redhat linux, you might have to pay for latest ones)  www.lavasoft.com : good adware/spyware removal. free for personal use.  2. feedback. most of programs are tested and runs good, however in order to be tested they need to be run on various type of computer with various components which it would cost the companies sharply high. best way is give out programs to general people to use and when there's error, it allows people to choose whether or not you want to send feed back data to them so that they can study.(companies uses the error feedback to study them and fix/optimize their software)  3. good for the people that doesn't want to pay or poor. people that understands good and benefit of certain programs really can enjoy. example of that would be using yahoo messenger/service etc.   4. sales/market promotion/advertisement benefit by spreading programs.  i hope these answer your question. ç=^d