It isn’t? I understand “free of charge” exclusively as “no payment in the form of currency required”. What else is done with you and your data doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t have to pay up front.
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We can use the same word in my mother tongue to say “free of charge” and “costless” and I don’t consider only the direct and immediate payment, I consider the whole cost. If an health insurance computes its rate for me or if a bank computes my solvency based on those data, using those “free of charge” services won’t have an immediate price but it will have a cost and a price on the long term.
Yes but my point is that they should care about some other aspects if they expect something lasting on the long term and/or if what they put into those services is valuable for them.
I don’t understand the first part of your sentence, what do you mean exactly? They offer something and they expect something in return. Personally, I prefer knowing exactly what they expect in return before “buying”.
Microsoft’s position on software patents hasn’t changed and a representative of the Linux Foundation can’t criticize a platinum member giving more than 500 000 US dollars per year.
I’m aware of Apple recent move on OpenGL and OpenGL ES, I’m sad about it. I’ll just drop support of its operating systems if they require to use Metal Microsoft hasn’t expressed intent to support Vulkan (according to LunarG) like Apple.