How to distinguish Freeware, Trialware and Shareware software?

Today, computers, phones, cameras, ipad ... and countless other modern devices, are being used widely, massively and almost anyone could have owned a such products. However, to be able to experience all the features and efficiency that they bring, manufacturers, software manufacturing corporations are always releasing accompanying products.

Distinguish free software (Freeware), trial (Trialware) and shareware (Shareware)

Surely each of us has at least once used computer software or phones. In addition to the genuine, copyrighted software, there are also products labeled "Free" or "Free Trial" . But in fact, there is another type of software that we do not know about, and may have "accidentally" used it without knowing it, or confused with "Free Trial" , which is the type of software " Shareware ". 

Let's take a look at the birth of these terms a bit. The first is Freeware . At first, it was coined by Andrew Fluegelman, initially, it was like a brand (Trademak) for PC-Talk software he wrote in 1982. But then the brand was dropped and "Freeware"  became a common noun. Until now, this term is still in controversy, because the Free Software Foundation (FSF) thinks that  "Freeware" is a loosely defined and not accepted category. clearly. The FSF also says it needs to be distinguished from "Free software" - Completely free software. Because between these two types of software, there are very clear differences in features for users. And furthermore, the word Free in "Free Software" means "freedom" rather than "free" as in Freeware . Because with Free Software, users can freely share, distribute, or even interfere with the source code to edit products to suit them, or make better products. Basically, this is the biggest, most typical difference between a Freeware and a Free Software .

Meanwhile, the same was born around the year 80-90, but until now, Shareware is still a mystery, a mysterious name for quite a few people, have been using this type of software. According to analysts, Shareware really is not the same, and even more is not Trialware . It is also a free, but conditional trial version. Because of this confusion, many people still do not know the existence of Shareware , and often mistakenly think it is Trialware .

 Talk about Trialware . It was born with the purpose of marketing, promoting products widely to the most consumers with the lowest cost. Also used only for a limited period of time with limited marbles features. But because it was born, developed from the famous software companies, so when it was misunderstood as a Shareware , it "drowned out" this name. However, to better understand these 3 categories of software products, let's see how they are defined under the perspective of analysts collected by Download.com.vn .

• Freeware (Free software)

A compound word,  derived from "Free" and "Software" . This is a software that allows users to freely use without any fee. Users can experience the full features of this software, or just a few of the most basic features. But one thing is for sure, Freeware users will be limited to certain rights, such as: Copy, distribute, modify the source code ...

• Trialware or Free Trial (Free Trial Software)

Is the limited edition of commercial software. Usually produced by major and reputable software companies in the World. Provided free to users to introduce products to stimulate users to decide to buy after they try the product. The drawback of Trialware is that users can only use the product for a certain period of time (usually 30 days) . Then, if they want to continue using the product, they will cost quite high, equal to the value of the full commercial version on the market.

• Shareware (so-called "shareware")

 The software is full of features of the commercial version, distributed freely to users for a certain period of time. But unlike Trialware in that, it has a license that recommends individuals, organizations, businesses to buy. In addition, shareware is often written by ordinary computer programmers. So if you want to continue using, the fee they have to spend is very little. There is an opinion that the cost is only for printing, packaging and shipping, because some software vendors only require users to send them a few postcards. On some occasion, or sending money to the charity, even, does not require the user to pay the author in any way. 

 Through the above article, hope you have a better view of the software products being circulated in the world as well as in Vietnam, from which there are options and effective methods to use, The safest and most economical.

Have a nice day!