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Freeware vs Shareware (historic note)

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 9:02 am
by Midas
While I was reading this fun piece on the history of early US personal computing magazines, authored by one of its main actors, I came across the following passage -- which I don't even know if it's correct but that I reckon totally deserves to be recorded here:
Andrew [Fluegelman] quit working full-time at PCW so he could launch his own software company, which was based around a communications program he had authored called PC Talk. This program, which allowed PC users to send files back and forth to each other over a modem, was the first 'shareware' program. The whole concept of 'shareware', which Andrew called 'freeware', was invented by him because he didn't have the time or resources to market his software in the more traditional way."
"The Inside Story of PC Magazine, PC World, and Macworld's Origins, as Told by David Bunnell"
technologizer.com/2024/01/20/
the-inside-story-of-pc-magazine-pc-world-and-macworlds-origins-as-told-by-david-bunnell/

Re: Freeware vs Shareware (historic note)

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 6:50 pm
by Andrew Lee
Interesting...

I thought shareware by definition involved some form of time, or content-limited demoware.

Freeware, on the other hand, is totally free.

But that part about reducing the time/resources to market software stand true.

Re: Freeware vs Shareware (historic note)

Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 5:03 am
by Midas
That has also been my general understanding of their difference for the past decades, Andrew. I just thought this previously unbeknownst inception narrative to be rather intriguing... :?

BTW for those who like this kind of digging, there's an online archive of Byte magazine up to May 1994 (I still keep its September 1995 issue in my office for no particular reason...):
And some more at http://www.textfiles.com/history/.