I think you’re on to something there. Most software available today merely does what free software already does, but with specific marketing to make it seem like something people need. For example, all of the below software categories are easily handled with either the software bundled with your operating system or a simple open source download:

- budgeting

- to do / productivity

- book / music / video game / etc. media cataloging

- project planning

- event planning

- file storage

- etc

When someone remarked once that most SaaS products are a front end to a spreadsheet, I just thought, “they’re not wrong.”

Now if people had computer literacy they wouldn’t pay $20 a month for a service their computer already does.