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Affinity Studio now free

(www.affinity.studio)
1199 points dagmx | 2 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:54 UTC | HN request time: 0.406s | source
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mwkaufma ◴[30 Oct 25 17:11 UTC] No.45762376[source]▶
Many comments here that this "makes sense." Free does not make sense! If I'm not paying for it I'm not the customer anymore.
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latexr ◴[30 Oct 25 17:42 UTC] No.45762796[source]▶
It’s not all free. It gets you in the door to then pay for the subscription to the AI features.

Also, that idea of “if you don’t pay, you’re the product” was a nice slogan but it isn’t true. Open-source software is free and respects you, while streaming services these days charge you money while serving you ads.

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1. mwkaufma ◴[30 Oct 25 18:26 UTC] No.45763385[source]▶
The open-source comparison is confused. Lots of open-source projects do offer optional commercial licenses or support contracts. And the truly free-as-in-beer projects either have some kind of grant financing or else the maintainer shoulders the costs until they burn out.

That "nice slogan" is emphatically true.

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2. latexr ◴[31 Oct 25 11:38 UTC] No.45770903[source]▶
> Lots of open-source projects do offer optional commercial licenses or support contracts.

And lots more don’t. The difference is so large that the ones who do offer commercial support are a rounding error in comparison.

> And the truly free-as-in-beer projects either have some kind of grant financing or else the maintainer shoulders the costs until they burn out.

Those aren’t the only options, that is a false dichotomy. But even if it were true, it in no way contradicts the argument.

> That "nice slogan" is emphatically true.

It emphatically is not, and you are ignoring half the argument. You can pay and still be the product.