Spam messages 8-7 deleted by QuickTopic 07-14-2011 08:15 AM
6
Eko
02-25-2003
05:15 AM ET (US)
Shareware didn't die, it just grew into something else.
With OS X, I now expect there to be more of the software that we tend to think of as shareware or freeware. I think this is great! There's a new energy in the air. People who now next to nothing about programming are looking for ways in. Konfabulator looks like it might be a route. Some VersionTrackers might even argue that we are actually in danger of having too many individually created widgets and tools that do the same thing.
Even if it's not like it used to be, cheap or free software seems to be booming. Good work, boys and girls. Keep it coming.
5
Lwest
02-22-2003
05:14 PM ET (US)
Shareware has always been a good way for beginning programers to get their products in front of users. That concept is as good today as it ever was. It will, and should, continue to exist.
4
a chick
02-22-2003
02:58 AM ET (US)
Shareware is great coz u can get the games anywhere in hte world. Where i live you can't get that many games for the mac, but with shareware i can get the code emailed to me.
3
Rob M
02-21-2003
02:43 PM ET (US)
I actually think that with OS X (Unix based system) that it will encourage folks to do more programming and hence more software will emerge. Well, to get people to use it they will have to offer shareware. No other choice IMO.
2
pbx
02-21-2003
12:57 PM ET (US)
I agree with the Unsanity folks. (Though I do hear the faint noise of an axe being ground...)
The shareware concept is rooted in the pre-web era, as both a licensing scheme and a distgribution method. Back then you "shared" such software hand-to-hand (at user group meetings and the like) because this was the most efficient way to distribute it. There was no direct line from the software author to prospective user.
Time to admit the separation of the distribution and licensing pieces and, as they say in the business world, "rationalize" the terminology.
I disagree that a site like Versiontracker should get rid of the "License" field altogether though. If anything, licensing terms are more important (and better understood by the end user) than they used to be.
1
Andy
02-21-2003
11:37 AM ET (US)
While the article makes some good points, I think (now) of shareware as those programs that allow me to try the program (or at least some level of it) before paying for it. My shareware purchases are growing, if anything.
I definitely have some programs that I paid for, that I would NOT have bought without having the ability to try before paying.
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