Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun computing A type of
software that isdistributed without payment but is limited in any combination offunctionality ,availability , orconvenience .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun software that is available free of charge; may be distributed for evaluation with a fee requested for additional features or a manual etc.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Thus I may be missing a nuance that distinguishes shareware from commercial software, but it seems that networking and viral distribution have become so commonplace that shareware is no longer any significant distinction.
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So, shareware is just software with a free or limited trial?
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He even submitted a screenshot of the program, which consisted of text pointing out that the program was an experiment to see if a useless program could win shareware awards.
Waldo Jaquith - The terrible world of Windows shareware. 2007
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Experimenting with shareware is a much more pleasurable experience on a Mac.
Waldo Jaquith - The terrible world of Windows shareware. 2007
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Manatune is essentially a creative commons label, applying the notion of shareware to the music business and John Buckman, Magnatune founder, tells an interesting story about why he created the company.
B2fxxx 2005
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I have never heard piracy rates for shareware aka: downloadable games, but rates are intuitively much higher than software that's too big for a download.
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He offered his software as "shareware," meaning customers were able to download the software for free, without copy protection.
Mark Coker: Protect eBooks Or Trust Customers To Do The Right Thing? 2009
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You software for the language is improved much that my kind of shareware - where is to be found.
Archive 2009-07-01 Brian Clegg 2009
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While we've seen the idea of 'shareware' on so many little bits of code for so long, the fact is that 2009 will be the year that Digital Goods will take off.
Steve Rosenbaum: 5 Trends That Will Change Media in '09 2009
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An artist can even set up a kind of shareware distribution.
What’s the Future of the Music Industry? A Freakonomics Quorum - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com 2007
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