freeware
Sign in to saveFreeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines freeware unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers. For instance, modification, redistribution by third parties, and reverse engineering are permitted by some publishers but prohibited by others. Unlike with free and open-source software, which are also often distributed free of charge, the source code for freeware is typically not made available. Freeware may be intended to benefit its produ
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Freeware is software that you can download and use without paying money, though each publisher sets its own rules about what you're allowed to do with it—some let you modify or share it, while others don't. Unlike free and open-source software, freeware typically doesn't give you access to the underlying source code, and there's no single standard definition of what rights you have as a user.
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Article
10 sectionsContents
- History
- Definitions
- Software license
- Relation to other forms of software licensing
- Creative Commons licenses
- Restrictions
- "Free" trial
- See also
- References
- External links
Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines freeware unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the freeware it offers. For instance, modification, redistribution by third parties, and reverse engineering are permitted by some publishers but prohibited by others. Unlike with free and open-source software, which are also often distributed free of charge, the source code for freeware is typically not made available. Freeware may be intended to benefit its producer by, for example, encouraging sales of a more capable version, as in the freemium and shareware business models; or by collecting and selling user's personal data.
==History== The term freeware was coined in 1982 by Andrew Fluegelman, who wanted to sell PC-Talk, the communications application he had created, outside of commercial distribution channels. Fluegelman distributed the program via the same process as shareware. As software types can change, freeware can change into shareware.