It's "Shareware" not "Freeware"

Getting people to pay for software is a real challenge. When's the last time you paid for a piece of software?

Amazing how long it's been since I paid for software. I'm so used to getting great utilities like WinZip, PaintShopPro, and others for free that I forget that real people built these and would at least like to get paid.

At Real, we used to charge for "RealPlayer Plus" - which back in the late 90s, turned out to be a pretty good money-maker. Lots of people were happy to buy this 'upgraded' version - we just gave a few extra features, tech support, and "product ownership". However, at the same, we were seeing a proliferation of free software and free services in the bubble. To keep this cash cow, it got trickier and trickier - making it hard to find the 'free player' link was a game the storefront team seemed to play.

Anyway, it looks like this is coming back. People want to charge for *value* in software, which I think is fair. If you use it, pay for it. I mean we all buy screwdrivers, why wouldn't we buy a file zipper too?

See the article on News.com