ETERNAL TRUTHS  -  FREEWARE

WHAT IS FREEWARE - Ah, Well..... Read on:
•   It is not "Shareware," which you eventually must pay for.
•   It is not "Nagware," which tries to get you to pay for something that was originally offered as though it was free.
•   It is not "Crippleware," software that perpetually tries to annoy and tease you about features only enabled in the commercial version.
•   It is not "Adware," an increasingly popular form of software that is actually avehicle for advertising, and that is much like the modern Internet itself.
•  It is not "Spyware," a sleazy kind of program that opens a channel of communication between your computer and someone who wants to know what you are doing.

We have not talked about Malware, Jokeware,.........

Freeware must meet some of our needs or it cannot exist.
By contrast, commercial software can fail this basic standard and continue to exist, even thrive, for decades.

Example: Windows, which does precisely what it wants on your computer, usually at your expense. Windows isn't supposed to make sense, it's supposed to make money.

When you download a freeware program, you have some rights, some responsibilities, and you have just one remedy:
Rights
•  That you will not have to pay for the program, in any way, ever.
•  That the program will turn .out to be what its description says it is.
•  That the program will meet at least some of your needs.
•  That your privacy will not be invaded.
Responsibilities
•  You must read the documentation and FAQ list before asking a question.
•  You may not demand new answers to questions already covered in the FAQ list or the documentation.
•  You may not demand customer service or one-on-one instruction.
•  You don't have the right to demand program changes to suit your personal tastes.
Remedies
•  There's just one you can stop using the program. You cannot complain about it as though you paid for it, because you didn't.

THE ETERNAL TRUTH IS:
Commercial software, by definition, is built by the lowest bidder.
By contrast, freeware (some if it, anyway) is built by people who actually like what they are doing, and some of them are people the big software corporations could not afford to hire.

- Deepa Roy Chowdhury
Manager Complaint - CORE