By Daniel Robson
The vast majority of us will have, at some point, had freewaregames or applications installed on our systems. If you’ve playedan online Java or Flash based game, you’ve used freeware. In avery real way the Internet itself is freeware, a massivecollections of scripts, information, tools and resources thatare, for the most part, totally free. But what is it thatmotivates so many people to put so much work into a project, andthen release it totally free of charge? There are a fewmisconceptions about freeware that I would like to clear up.
1.) “Freeware programs are loaded with spy ware and Trojanhorses” – not true. While it is true that some programs containthese types of malicious software, they are a vanishingly smallpercentage of the whole. The type of people who release programslike this are identical to spam mailers – criminal and beneathcontempt. If you are worried about this then I suggest you onlydownload software from large, well known freeware sites. Thesealmost always check to ensure their programs are free of anymalicious code.
2.) “Freeware only works for X amount of days, or is crippled insome way”. Again, not true. Programs that work in this way areclassified as Shareware, and are designed so that if you likethe programs function you can pay the author for a full version.Freeware is never crippled in any way, and comes with no chargewhatsoever – although donations are always appreciated!
3.) “The only reason this is freeware is because no-one in theirright mind would pay money for it”. This, unfortunately, isoften a valid point. There are some truly abysmal programs outthere. And even if the program is a good, helpful little tool,it doesn’t mean you would be prepared to spend £10 on it in ashop. However there are some absolute gems out there, like 7-zipfor example. All I can say is, again, look for the bigdirectories where the submissions are ranked. Look especiallyfor the sites where users can leave their own feedback on aproduct, for example
So what is the reason people make programs for free? The pointsabove could explain it, to some extent. But that is not whatfreeware is really about. Freeware is about programmers wantingto share what they’ve created with the world at large, be it auseful tool, a kick-ass game or even a simple script. People whowrite freeware like to share what they’ve made, and maybe getsome credit from the wider community for making somethinguseful. So next time you find a useful piece of free softwarewhy not look through the about box to find out who made it. Ifthey have a site then go visit, maybe leave a note in the guestbook to encourage them to keep up the good work, to create moresuperb software. And you never know, the site may even containthat perfect piece of software you’ve been looking for.
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