Check out any pc shop nowadays and you’ll find what seems
like miles and miles of application for selling. Certainly attractive
purchases, there are a few problems with purchasing application off the racks.
On the display, application – otherwise known as “commercial software” - can be
costly, and not compatible, and obsolete in comparison to what’s available
online. Luckily, there’s an substitute to professional application and although
it isn’t new, it’s one of the most under-exploited possibilities in the pc
market.
We’re referring to shareware – application that you can try
before purchasing.
Shareware has a lengthy record and was rather well-known in the
times where BBS (bulletin panel systems) reined the on the internet market. It
hasn’t gone anywhere, but its competitors with professional application is intense – so intense that it
tends to drop to the side among new people who use computers. This is
regrettable because shareware has so many benefits over professional
application.
One of those advantages is its price. On the whole,
shareware is generally less expensive than professional application. But don’t
misunderstand the price. With shareware, cheap does not equivalent low-quality
and there are plenty of illustrations that confirm shareware often outperforms
the high top quality of professional application efforts after time again.
How much benefits are
we discussing about? You could purchase a top quality word processer,
worksheet, data source program, or system application anywhere from a simple
$15 to under a hundred. This is almost unprecedented in shops like Best Buy,
Routine City, or Egghead, yet the shareware programs provided within this price
range competing even Microsoft’s Office package.
Another advantage that shareware has over commercial
software is its compatibility. We’re not saying that shareware is compatible
with all operating systems. What we’re saying is that since we can try shareware
before paying for it, we can determine if the software is completely compatible
with our systems first. In other words, we can discover whether the software
performs the way we want them to and should anyone try to do the same with
commercial software, they’ll be in for a big disappointment.
Commercial software policy doesn’t even allow for returns,
let alone “borrowing” them to try them.
The last advantage that shareware has over commercial
software (but certainly not the least) is its applicability. Plain and simple,
shareware is the best bet when you want to keep on top of the latest release of
a particular program. Sure, computer stores do their best to keep their
inventory up to date, but when you can download version 5.6042 of a shareware program
as opposed to buying a commercial 3.0 version from the local computer shop,
there’s just no comparison.
Which brings up our next point. Just where does one get
shareware? Shareware is all over the Internet and it’s really hard not to bump
into it. The most popular places to find shareware is within thousands of
download libraries, however the companies (and even independent programmers
behind shareware) are increasingly offering shareware from their own websites.
A simple Google or Yahoo search for a particular type of program will yield all
sorts of results that point you toward items that you can try before you buy.
Be aware however, that because shareware is not commercial
software, you may not experience a full program the way you would if you bought
the software out of a box. Shareware may or may not be limited – meaning that
some functions may not be available to you until the program is paid for. These
limitations are often small and don’t interfere with the way its full version
operations. They’re really just implemented as a way to prompt payment.
Remember that shareware is not freeware. You shouldn’t try to use shareware as
commercial software without paying for it.
About the only thing that’s similar between shareware and
commercial software is the way in which they may be bought. With a credit card,
you can be the new owner of your own software within minutes.
