Whats the difference between “shareware” and “trialware”?
A. Mainly the name and the fact that no large successful companies refer to their trial or demo software as “shareware”. See Symantec for example. The term “shareware” is also old-fashioned and non-descriptive. The word “shareware” was coined to describe software that was obtained and then shared freely with others, usually by diskette. Today with the Internet this meaning is entirely obsolete. Plus, the reference to sharing might give people the impression that it is OK to purchase shareware and then share the registered copy with others. Trialware, on the other hand, means what it says, trial software.
