difference between shareware and commercial software
Shareware
Try before you buy
Shareware is computer software that is distributed on the principle that users can try it before they buy it. Shareware is not free software, and it is still protected by copyright laws. The essential difference between shareware and ordinary commercial software is that users are permitted to run a shareware program to test it for a reasonable time – perhaps for 30 days – before registering and paying for it. Users who do not pay for it are on their honour, if any, to stop using it.
Because shareware is freely distributed, it avoids many of the costs of commercial distribution. Shareware programs are usually circulated without boxes and manuals, and there are no dealers to take a cut of the profits. Shareware libraries are allowed to make a small charge to cover the cost of any disks, and online services may charge for connection time while a program is downloaded to a user's personal computer, but these sums are small. As a result, shareware is usually much cheaper than commercial software, and it can be very good value.
The best shareware authors are often members of an American organization, the ASP (Association of Shareware Professionals), which acts as a sort of trade body.
Heyday
The shareware market was most successful in the early days of the IBM Personal Computer, launched in the USA in 1981. At the time, there was relatively little commercial software around, there were not many shops selling programs, and commercial standards were relatively low. Good shareware programs such as PC-Write and PC-File generated millions of dollars' worth of sales. Today, sophisticated software suites such as Microsoft Works and ClarisWorks are widely available and cheap, so most shareware programs are simpler utilities that often could not be distributed on a commercial basis. However, there are still exceptions, such as PaintShop Pro, and id Software's games, such as Doom.
Don't pay, don't use
Software writers have made a variety of attempts to encourage users to pay for programs when the test period runs out. Payment may, for example, be rewarded with an upgraded version of the program, a printed manual, and support if there are problems. Some programrs include warnings or advertising messages that nag the user into paying (often called 'nagware'). Some programrs limit their software ('crippleware'), or stop it from working after 30 days. This is no longer shareware by the standards of the ASP.
Many programrs take advantage of the distribution system that has grown up around shareware, including shareware libraries (which distribute programs by post), online bulletin boards (from which programs may be downloaded), CD-ROMs, and computer magazine cover discs. Some authors are giving their programs away (freeware) while others ask for a postcard, a bottle of an alcoholic beverage, a donation to a named charity, or just a smile.
Today, shareware is not as popular as it has been, and there are fewer shareware libraries in operation. However, the future is not necessarily bleak. Many computer users have now become used to downloading programs over the Internet, and this means many more users have easy access to shareware. Also we may be moving away from large, complex programs towards an age of software components that 'plug in' to 'container' programs like World Wide Web browsers. These components – written in for example, Sun's Java language or Microsoft's Visual Basic – can easily be written by individuals and small companies and could well be distributed as shareware.
