Freeware vs. Shareware – What’s the Difference? – Knowligent
Freeware vs. Shareware – What’s the Difference?

Freeware vs. Shareware – What’s the Difference?

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Summary by Helpdeskgeek • Imen Taktak on Youtube • Published 5 years ago

We put them next to each other

Freeware vs. Shareware

The term freeware was first used almost forty years ago, when Andrew Fluegelman, a programmer, created the program PC-Talk for the IBM PC. However, the program was not initially distributed for free.

A few months later, Bob Wallace, a software engineer at Microsoft, developed the word processor PC-Write and called it shareware because it was not freely distributed.

Ideally, freeware – or open source software – is available completely free of charge, without any feature or time limitations. Shareware, on the other hand, is a preview version of commercial software with feature, time, and usage limitations, plus other disincentives to entice you to buy the full version.