What is Shareware, Trial Software and Freeware?
In the Mid 1980’s Bob Wallace developed a word processor program called PC-Write. To further describe his program, Wallace came up with the term Shareware. Many users in the industry consider Jim Button, the creator of PC-File – a database program, and Andrew Fluegelman, the author of PC-Talk – a communication program, are considered to be the “fathers” of the Shareware concept. However, the three of them clearly established the Shareware model to be the viable marketing method for their software. In the early days of software distribution, it was a standard practice to share computer programs across a global bulletin board system. This allowed users to share and exchange them with other users that may have a need for it to accomplish or simplify daily tasks. As the progress of the software industry continued to develop, software authors and vendors started to request small payments for their software in order to help support continued improvements and offer technical support of the so
