Am I the only one that is terribly confused about what "shareware" is? According to Dictionary.com it is "copyrighted software that is available free of charge on a trial basis, usually with the condition that users pay a fee for continued use and support." Isn't that just a demo? I found another source that stated shareware as meaning that "you can distribute it among your friends as long as none of the contents have been altered".
So basically what I am asking is, how do you draw the line between commercial products and shareware products? Any insight on this would be really appreciated.
Shareware Plug-Ins
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HaraldHeim
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Basically I would say that "shareware" and "commercial" means the same.
When the term "shareware" was young in the 80s and early 90s, this kind of software was freely usable and didn't have any limitations. At that time commercial software usually wasn't available as tryout versions.
Nowadays there are trial versions of 99% of all commercial software and 99% of all shareware programs have some kind of limitations. So in most cases you won't be able to draw a line between "shareware" and "commercial".
The only difference probably is that you are free to distribute shareware software (but of course not the reg key, serial or an unlocked version of it) while that isn't the case of commercial software. Nevertheless it is best to read any ReadMe or user license before you do that. There may be some "shareware" that doesn't allow even that. But as everyone has internet acess, you usally just need to point a friend to a download location, so the sharing aspect of shareware doesn't play a big role anymore.
I hope I didn't confuse you.
When the term "shareware" was young in the 80s and early 90s, this kind of software was freely usable and didn't have any limitations. At that time commercial software usually wasn't available as tryout versions.
Nowadays there are trial versions of 99% of all commercial software and 99% of all shareware programs have some kind of limitations. So in most cases you won't be able to draw a line between "shareware" and "commercial".
The only difference probably is that you are free to distribute shareware software (but of course not the reg key, serial or an unlocked version of it) while that isn't the case of commercial software. Nevertheless it is best to read any ReadMe or user license before you do that. There may be some "shareware" that doesn't allow even that. But as everyone has internet acess, you usally just need to point a friend to a download location, so the sharing aspect of shareware doesn't play a big role anymore.
I hope I didn't confuse you.