The free model can work if it leads to a secondary revenue model, such as B2B services, or secondary products that actually do make money. Launching a business blindly for free hoping to "fake it until you make it" is not a recipe for a successful business model.

I wrote about how to properly use the FREE software model today at http://www.onlineepiphany.com/2008/04/04/how-do-they-give-th...