What is shareware?

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he name shareware is a combination of the English words share and software and refers to a program that any user can copy as often as they like and distribute to others (free of charge). This is a special form of distribution that can be used to reach a large number of people very conveniently. Today on Digital Smartness we are taking a closer look at the topic of shareware.



The classic “shareware” and its early development
The concept goes back in large part to the programmer turkey gambling data Bob Wallace , who was one of Bill Gates' first employees at Microsoft from 1978. In the early 1980s he founded his own company, Quicksoft, and distributed his product - a word processor called PC-Write - from hand to hand. At that time, programs and storage media were expensive, so the free and voluntary distribution had clear advantages for both sides.

This approach was quickly adopted by other start-ups that did not have the finances for extensive marketing and the staff for sales. Originally, the software consisted of the complete program and could be used without any restrictions.

Profits could be made from a low price, a moral obligation to buy and attractive additional offers such as information, extensions and updates. However, little by little, more and more companies introduced restrictions to increase their sales.