Shareware

Shareware is software you can download and try out without paying up front. Some of the programs you will find will actually be "freeware" which costs you nothing, ever, but shareware often includes putting up with a "nag screen" that tells you if you liked the product to please send the programmer X amount of dollars. The example below shows the screen that pops up every time you quit PKZIP (until you register it of course, in which case you'd get a serial number from PKWARE that would make the nag screen go away). PKZIP is a very useful compression utility, by the way, and is available to download from PKWARE at http://www.pkware.com.

pkzip.gif (10727 bytes)

C|Net sponsors two popular sites to find software, Shareware.com and Download.com. Both can be searched for specific types of utilities or programs: Download.com is a repository of internet software and has more than 15,000 files available. Shareware.com has over 250,000 files available to download, including.freeware, shareware, demos, fixes, patches, upgrades, all provided by the top managed software archives and computer vendor sites on the Internet.

http://www.shareware.com

http://www.download.com

Some of the things you will find to download for free are games, screen savers, browsers, plugins, electronic texts, calculators, online photo album organizers, inventory tools, and updated hardware drivers. Some of the shareware options available include sophisticated calendar programs, online chat programs, HTML editors, . Some of the demo programs available will let you try out software that designs landscapes, shows you CPR techniques, track your ebay auctions, organize your recipes, play Christmas carols on your PC, and count calories.

The Paper

For the paper for this class, email me and include this information:

  1. list the programs you've downloaded with PKZIP (or another utility)
  2. how many programs have you downloaded (zipped or not) since you started surfing the internet?
  3. how useful were the programs?
  4. if shareware, did you pay the licensing fees?
  5. was there a for-purchase alternative for the downloaded software?
  6. if so, how does the for-purchase product compare with the online version?

 


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Last updated: 16 Apr 2003