Freeware Software
Published by: SoftDistrict, in SoftDistrict Series
February9th2010
Freeware is in fact a word that is formed by combining other two words: free ans software. It was invented when a guy called Andrew Fluegelman wanted to make one of his software programmes popular, but wanted to avoid the regular distribution methods because of the high costs for him. So he thought about letting people share his software for free for a period of time in order to see if they like it or not and after that to purchase it for money if they were content with the result.
In fact the initial intention of Fluegelman is no longer the current meaning of the word "freeware", because now "freeware" is defined as free of charge software that is offered without a limitation of time or purpose. Even if the software is recognized as having a certain author and the author usually has distribution rights, when he accepted to letting other people purchase his software for free he gave up his rights willingly and in this way the people downloading the software from the internet have the liberty to do whatever they want with it, even change it, use it for personal or commercial purposes and so on.
Some software owners realized all these implications (why should other people download MY software for free and then SELL it to others for money?) and restricted the software use for example: for personal use only, for academic use, forbidden to be used for commercial purposes or any other combination of these.
In fact there are some professionals who claim a different use for these different terms: freeware for proprietary software or open source software that is offered for use free of charge, while free software involves total freedom over this software, that is you may operate all the changes that you want on this software.
Another kind of software that is similar somehow to the freeware is the shareware. The shareware is software given for free download and use, but only for a period of time and only with certain features of the original software available. It is used very frequently to release a new software application for example, letting users know what the new appeared software can do. After the trial period the user is supposed to be convinced of the advantages of purchasing the original stuff.
Wikipedia is kind enough to offer a list with the most popular computer games released as freeware, I mean you don't ever have to pay for them. Other useful links to similar websites that may offer freeware (either computer games or some other kind of software) are these: www.freewarehome.com, www.freewarefiles.com/, freeware.intrastar.net, www.bestfreewaredownload.com
Even though freeware is considered to be God's gift to gamers and internet users I feel compelled to tell you to be careful about the source of your freeware and always have a very powerful anti-virus installed on your computer, because there are a lot of people with bad intentions who offered freeware just to be able to attach some computer viruses or spyware to it. I don't need to tell you hoe dangerous these can be, so once again download and install only software from secure and trustful sources.
In fact the initial intention of Fluegelman is no longer the current meaning of the word "freeware", because now "freeware" is defined as free of charge software that is offered without a limitation of time or purpose. Even if the software is recognized as having a certain author and the author usually has distribution rights, when he accepted to letting other people purchase his software for free he gave up his rights willingly and in this way the people downloading the software from the internet have the liberty to do whatever they want with it, even change it, use it for personal or commercial purposes and so on.
Some software owners realized all these implications (why should other people download MY software for free and then SELL it to others for money?) and restricted the software use for example: for personal use only, for academic use, forbidden to be used for commercial purposes or any other combination of these.
In fact there are some professionals who claim a different use for these different terms: freeware for proprietary software or open source software that is offered for use free of charge, while free software involves total freedom over this software, that is you may operate all the changes that you want on this software.
Another kind of software that is similar somehow to the freeware is the shareware. The shareware is software given for free download and use, but only for a period of time and only with certain features of the original software available. It is used very frequently to release a new software application for example, letting users know what the new appeared software can do. After the trial period the user is supposed to be convinced of the advantages of purchasing the original stuff.
Wikipedia is kind enough to offer a list with the most popular computer games released as freeware, I mean you don't ever have to pay for them. Other useful links to similar websites that may offer freeware (either computer games or some other kind of software) are these: www.freewarehome.com, www.freewarefiles.com/, freeware.intrastar.net, www.bestfreewaredownload.com
Even though freeware is considered to be God's gift to gamers and internet users I feel compelled to tell you to be careful about the source of your freeware and always have a very powerful anti-virus installed on your computer, because there are a lot of people with bad intentions who offered freeware just to be able to attach some computer viruses or spyware to it. I don't need to tell you hoe dangerous these can be, so once again download and install only software from secure and trustful sources.
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