The term shareware, popularized by Bob Wallace Bob Wallace , was the ninth Microsoft employee, first popular user of the term shareware, creator of the word processing program PC-Write, founder of the software company Quicksoft and an "online drug guru" who devoted much time and money into the research of psychedelic drugs. Bob was also noted for ending his Usenet posts with the^[1], refers to proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software which is the legal property of one party. The terms of use for other parties is defined by contracts or licensing agreements. These terms may include various privileges to share, alter, dissemble, and use the software and its code that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability 1. The degree to which a system, subsystem, or equipment is operable and in a committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at an unknown, i.e., a random, time. Simply put, availability is the proportion of time a system is in a functioning condition or convenience Convenience is anything that is intended to save resources or frustration. A convenience store at a petrol station, for example, sells items that have nothing to do with gasoline/petrol, but it saves the consumer from having to go to a grocery store. "Convenience" is a very relative term and its meaning tends to change over time. What. Shareware is often offered as a download In networks, uploading and downloading refer to the two canonical directions that information can move, and further defines such data as being copied and compiled (indicated by the term "loading") to create a complete file, after a period of time. Downloading is distinguished from the related concept of streaming, which indicates a from an Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite . It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and website A website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network. A web site is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via the Internet or a private local area network or as a compact disc A Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was developed to store music at the start, but later it also allowed to store other kinds of data. CD have been available since October 1982. In 2009, they are still the standard physical medium for commercial audio recordings included with a periodical A periodical publication, or just periodical, is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar examples are the newspaper, often published daily, or weekly; or the magazine, typically published weekly, monthly or as a quarterly. Other examples would be a newsletter, a literary journal or learned journal, such as a newspaper A newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the personal opinions of writers. Supplementary sections or magazine Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three. Magazines can be distributed through the mail; through sales by newsstands, bookstores or other vendors;. The aim of shareware is to give buyers the opportunity to use the program and judge its usefulness before purchasing a license for the full version of the software.

Shareware is usually offered as a trial version Evaluation is systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone using criteria against a set of standards. Evaluation often is used to characterize and appraise subjects of interest in a wide range of human enterprises, including the arts, criminal justice, foundations and non-profit organizations, government, with certain features The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers defines the term feature in IEEE 829 as "A distinguishing characteristic of a software item ." only available after the license is purchased, or as a full version, but for a trial period. Once the trial period has passed the program may stop running until a license is purchased. Shareware is often offered without support, updates, or help menus, which only become available with the purchase of a license. The words "free trial" or "trial version" are indicative of shareware.

The term shareware is used in contrast to retail software Retail software is computer software sold to end consumers, usually under restricted licenses. Until the emergence of the Internet, retail software represented, until the 2000s, the vast majority of all end consumer software used and was referred to as shrinkware because software almost always ships in a shrinkwrapped box. An important historical, which refers to commercial software available only with the purchase of a license which may not be copied for others, public domain software Public domain software is software that has been placed in the public domain, in other words there is absolutely no ownership of the "intellectual property" that the software represents, which refers to software not copyright Copyright gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a protected, and freeware The term freeware was coined by Andrew Fluegelman when he wanted to sell a communications program named PC-Talk that he had created but for which he did not wish to use traditional methods of distribution because of their cost. Fluegelman actually distributed PC-Talk via a process now referred to as shareware. Current use of the term freeware does, which refers to copyrighted software for which the author solicits no payment (though he or she may request donations).

History

The term "shareware" predates the IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981. It was created by a team of engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge of the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton,. In the early days of personal computers A home computer was a class of personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as accessible personal computers, more capable than video game consoles. These computers typically cost much less than business, scientific or engineering-oriented desktop personal computers of the time, (late 70's) there were few programs available. Many "computer hobbyists" simply wrote their own programs when there was nothing available to do the job. They shared these programs with other enthusiasts freely. The terms "freeware" and "shareware" were loosely used to distinguish them from commercial programs.

Popular Usage: In 1982, Andrew Fluegelman Andrew Cardozo Fluegelman was a publisher, programmer and attorney best known as the inventor of what is now known as the shareware business model for software marketing. He was also the leader of the 1970s New Games movement which advocated the development of noncompetitive games created a program for the IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981. It was created by a team of engineers and designers under the direction of Don Estridge of the IBM Entry Systems Division in Boca Raton, called PC-Talk PC-Talk was a communications software program. It was one of the first three widely popular software products sold via the marketing method that became known as shareware. It was originally written by Andrew Fluegelman, in late 1982, a telecommunications Modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data. Modems can be used over any means of transmitting analog program, he used the term freeware. About the same time, Jim "Button" Knopf Jim Knopf, nicknamed Jim Button , is considered by many to be one of the "fathers" of shareware (so named by fellow software veteran Peter Norton). As an IBM employee, he wrote a program to help with a local church congregation. When demand for his program consumed too much of his time, he quit IBM and created Buttonware. He released his released PC-File PC-File was a flat file database computer application most often run on DOS. It was one of the first of three widely popular software products sold via the marketing method that became known as shareware. It was originally written by Jim "Button" Knopf in late 1982, and he formed the company Buttonware to develop, market, and support it, a database A Database is an integrated collection of logically related records or files that is stored in a computer system which consolidates records previously stored in separate files into a common pool of data records that provides data for many applications. A Database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, program, calling it user-supported software^[2]. Not much later, Bob Wallace Bob Wallace , was the ninth Microsoft employee, first popular user of the term shareware, creator of the word processing program PC-Write, founder of the software company Quicksoft and an "online drug guru" who devoted much time and money into the research of psychedelic drugs. Bob was also noted for ending his Usenet posts with the produced PC-Write PC-Write was a computer text processor and was one of the first three widely popular software products sold via the marketing method that became known as shareware. It was originally written by Bob Wallace, in early 1983, a word processor, and called it shareware. Appearing in an episode of Horizon Horizon is a current and long-running BBC popular science and philosophy documentary programme titled Psychedelic Science originally broadcast 5 April, 1998, Bob Wallace Bob Wallace , was the ninth Microsoft employee, first popular user of the term shareware, creator of the word processing program PC-Write, founder of the software company Quicksoft and an "online drug guru" who devoted much time and money into the research of psychedelic drugs. Bob was also noted for ending his Usenet posts with the said the idea for shareware came to him "to some extent as a result of my psychedelic experience."^[3]

In 1984, Softalk-PC magazine had a column, The Public Library, about such software. Public domain is a misnomer for shareware, and Freeware was trademarked by Fluegelman and could not be used legally by others, and User-Supported Software was too cumbersome. So columnist Nelson Ford Nelson Ford was one of the founders of shareware software distribution, of HAL-PC , of the Association of Shareware Professionals, founder of the Public (software) Library, the largest commercial library of public domain and shareware software, and of the first major order processing service for shareware programmers. In 1984, through his had a contest to come up with a better name.

The most popular name submitted was Shareware, which was being used by Wallace. However, Wallace acknowledged that he got the term from an InfoWorld InfoWorld is an information technology online media and events business operating under the umbrella of InfoWorld Media Group, a division of IDG . The InfoWorld web site and executive events provide IT solution information resources in the enterprise IT marketplace as well as opportunities for the enterprise IT community to coalesce and interact magazine column by that name in the 1970's, and that he considered the name to be generic,^{[citation needed]} so its use became established over freeware and user-supported software. ^[4]

Fluegelman, Knopf, and Wallace clearly established shareware as a viable software marketing method. Via the shareware model, Button, Fluegelman and Wallace became millionaires.^[5][6]

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, shareware software was widely distributed over bulletin board systems A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to the system using a terminal program. Originally BBSes were accessed only over a phone line using a modem, but by the early 1990s some BBSes allowed access via a Telnet, packet switched network, or packet radio connection globally and on diskettes (and subsequently, CD-ROMs) by commercial shareware distributors who produced catalogs of up to thousands of public domain and shareware programs. One such distributor, Public Software Library (PSL), began an order-taking service for programmers who otherwise had no means of accepting credit card orders.

As Internet usage grew, users turned to downloading shareware programs without paying long-distance charges or disk fees, spelling the end of bulletin board systems A Bulletin Board System, or BBS , is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users, either through electronic and shareware disk distributors. In addition to shareware libraries online, the authors of programs had their own sites where the public could learn about their programs and download the latest versions, and even pay for the software online.

The Internet also made it easier to locate niche software, as well as the best and most popular general software. During the early 2000s, and with the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 "Web 2.0" refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and, new ways to filter the software became available. Major download sites began to rank titles based on quality, feedback, and downloads. Popular software was sorted to the top of the list. Blogs A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog and online forums further enabled individuals to spread news about titles they like. With this pruning in place, consumers can more easily find quality shareware products while still preserving the ability to find obscure and niche software.

Implementations

Free Free software or software libre is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with minimal restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things and that manufacturers of consumer-facing hardware/open source Open source is an approach to the design, development, and distribution of software, offering practical accessibility to a software's source code. Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical strategic element of their operations. Before open source became widely adopted, developers software and shareware are similar in that they can be obtained and used without monetary cost. Usually shareware differs from free/open source software in that requests of voluntary shareware fees are made, often within the program itself, and in that source code In computer science, source code is any collection of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language. Source code allows the programmer to communicate with the computer using a reserved number of instructions for shareware programs is generally not available in a form that would allow others to extend the program. Notwithstanding that tradition, some free/open source software authors ask for voluntary donations, although there is no requirement to do so. Free/open source software is usually compatible with the strict Association of Shareware Professionals The Association of Shareware Professionals was formed in April 1987. As of 2007, it describes itself as the world's #1 Trade Organization for independent software developers and vendors shareware guidelines.

Sometimes, paying the fee and obtaining a password results in access to expanded features, documentation, or support. In some cases, unpaid use of the software is limited in time or in features — in which case the software is vernacularly called crippleware Crippleware is any product whose functions have been limited with the express purpose of requiring the user to pay for those functions (either paying a one-time fee or continually paying a service). Crippleware is also used to describe software that makes use of Digital Rights Management. Some shareware items require no payment; just an email address, so that the supplier can use this address for their own purposes.

Shareware is available on all major computer platforms including Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal, Macintosh Macintosh, or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The Macintosh was introduced on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than a command-line interface, Linux Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and other free, and Unix Unix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. Today's Unix systems are split into various branches, developed over time by AT&T as well as various commercial vendors and non-profit organizations. Titles cover a very wide range of categories including: business, software development, education, home, multimedia, design, drivers, games, and utilities.

Logistics

With shareware, a developer bypasses the normal distribution channel eliminating the normal retail middleman markups and directly markets to the end user. The end result is a reduced end-user price compared to the retail channel. Users of shareware are encouraged to copy and distribute unregistered versions of the software to friends, coworkers and other acquaintances. The hope is that users will find the program useful or entertaining and will pay to register to be able to access all the features.

In the early to mid-1990s, large online distribution channels known as "portals", such as Download.com Download.com is an Internet download directory website, launched in 1996 as a part of CNET. Originally, the domain was download.com.com, Tucows Tucows was formed in Flint, Michigan, USA in 1993. It incorporated in Pennsylvania and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company is perhaps most well known for its popular website directory of shareware, freeware, and demo software packages available to download. A system of mirror sites are maintained to allow the traffic to the site, Yahoo! Yahoo! Inc. is an American public corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, (in Silicon Valley), that provides Internet services worldwide. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine (Yahoo! Search), Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, advertising, online mapping (Yahoo! Maps), office productivity, video Games and RealArcade emerged. These portals acted as media of distribution for the shareware developers, providing a much larger audience than before.

Many shareware developers are individual computer programmers who develop their own product — entrepreneurs. Online shareware author communities, like the newsgroup A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on the World Wide Web. Newsreader software is used to alt.comp.shareware.authors, are often used by software seekers to post their novel software ideas for potential implementation.

Distribution

In the early 1990s, shareware distribution was a popular method of publishing games for smaller developers, including then-fledgling companies such as Apogee Software (now 3D Realms 3D Realms is a publisher and video game developer based in Garland, Texas established in 1987. It is best known for popularizing the shareware distribution model and as the creator of franchises on the PC such as Duke Nukem, and also the publisher of other franchises such as Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D), Epic Megagames (now Epic Games), and id Software. It gave consumers the chance to play the game before investing money in it, and gave them exposure that some products would be unable to get in the retail space.

With the Kroz series, Apogee introduced the "episodic" shareware model that became the most popular incentive for "registering" (or buying) the game. While the shareware game would be a truly complete game, there would be additional "episodes" of the game that were not shareware, and could only be legally obtained by paying for the shareware episode. In some cases these episodes were neatly integrated and would feel like a longer version of the game, and in other cases the later episode(s) would be stand-alone games.

Racks of games on single 5 1/4 inch and later 3.5 inch floppy disks were common in retail stores. However, bulletin board systems (BBS) and computer expositions such as Software Creations BBS were the primary distributors of all early low-cost software. Free software from a BBS was the motive force for consumers to purchase a computer equipped with a modem, so as to acquire software at no cost. At PC expositions, extant today, shareware was essentially free; the cost only covered the disk and minimal packaging.

In the mid-1990s, the shareware market declined and within a few years had virtually disappeared as a means for distributing computer games. The reasons for this are various, but could be closely linked with the decline of garage coders. Shareware was often a great means for games that were unable to get traditional marketing and retail exposure to get noticed. However, as technology improved, independent games were less able to be competitive in a commercial market, and larger developers found it unnecessary to release extensive shareware episodes, instead offering more limited demos in their stead.

The important distinguishing feature between a shareware game and a game demo is that the shareware game is, at least in theory, a complete game. Where modern demos are often a single level or less, shareware games usually had many hours of play with a beginning, middle, and end. Shareware episodes most commonly offered 1/3 or 1/2 of the entire registered version, and many even offered the entire product as shareware with no additional content for registered users.

Criticism

In the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s shareware was considered to be a concept for independent software writers to receive a degree of remuneration for their labor. However, after that the shareware model began to degrade as the term was used by commercial startups offering (sometimes substandard) commercial software and labeling non-functional or limited demo versions (known as crippleware) as shareware. As a result, the term shareware has shown reduced usage in recent years, replaced by either demo for trial software or freeware for full editions. However, shareware software is not always so limited in function, as demonstrated with programs such as The Bat!, GetRight, WinZip, and WinRAR, as well as various games.

Some shareware groups have liberal standards, allowing 'nag screens' that remind the user to buy the software, demonstration or "demo" versions and trialware. Some have refused to accept any software with limited functionality, including demos, trial use, or crippled software.^[7] Most groups, such as the Association of Shareware Professionals, the Software Industry Professionals group and PC Shareware clearly state their position that any software marketed as 'try before you buy' is shareware.

Another issue is the high percentage of projects that are either unsuccessful or just abandoned. Sites like Tucows, download.com, and Handango list hundreds of thousands of shareware projects, many of which are abandoned. One sampling found 76% of listed projects were abandoned or no longer being updated. Active projects commonly see less than 0.5% of downloaders convert to paying customers,^[8] and projects may be victims of software piracy, dropping sales by as much as half again.^[9]

With the advent of the internet, many traditional shareware programs (such as photo editing tools or word processors) are now available directly through a web browser, therefore bypassing the entire process of having to download and install the application. In addition to offering the convenience of not having to install any software, most online applications are offered at no cost to the user, through means of online advertisements.

Derivatives

Other types of software distribution, taking the suffix "-ware" have followed shareware's lead. They usually do not require the user to make a specific payment to the author. Rather, they sometimes require the user to send the author a postcard (postcardware) or donate to a specific charity (careware); for more examples see otherware.

Industry standards and technologies

There are several widely accepted standards and technologies that are used in the development and promotion of shareware.

• FILE_ID.DIZ is a descriptive text file often included in downloadable shareware distribution packages.
• PAD (Portable Application Description) is used to standardize shareware application descriptions. PAD file is an XML document that describes a shareware or freeware product according to the PAD specification.^[10]
• DynamicPAD extends the Portable Application Description (PAD) standard by allowing shareware vendors to provide customized PAD XML files to each download site or any other PAD-enabled resource. DynamicPAD is a set of server-side PHP scripts distributed under a GPL license and a freeware DynamicPAD builder for 32-bit Windows.
• Code signing is a technology that is used by Shareware developers to digitally sign their products. The recent versions of Microsoft Operating Systems, namely Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista, show a warning when the user installs unsigned software.

See also

• Association of Shareware Professionals
• Barriers to entry
• Donationware

References

1. ^ "Take Our Word For It". Words to the Wise, Issue 176. The Institute for Etymological Research and Education. 2002-11-14. http://www.takeourword.com/TOW176/page2.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-08.
2. ^ Callahan, Michael E.. "The History of Shareware". Paul's Picks. http://paulspicks.com/history.asp. Retrieved on 2008-05-13.
3. ^ Horizon: Psychedelic science by Bill Eagles, video.google.ca (about 41 mins into video)
4. ^ "History of Shareware". Association of Shareware Professionals
5. ^ Bob Wallace Timeline
6. ^ Article about Jim "Button" Knopf, from Dr. Dobbs Journal
7. ^ "Exposing the Myth of "Shareware". www.sustworks.com
8. ^ "Tips to Improve conversion". www.oisv.com
9. ^ Slashdot: "Do You Pay for Your Shareware?"
10. ^ PAD specification

External links

• Shareware at the Open Directory Project

Categories: Shareware | Software licenses

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