2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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freeware
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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n. [common] Freely-redistributable software, often written by enthusiasts
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and distributed by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin
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boards, Usenet , or other electronic media. As the culture of the Internet
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has displaced the older BBS world, this term has lost ground to both open
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source and free software ; it has increasingly tended to be restricted to
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software distributed in binary rather than source-code form. At one time,
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freeware was a trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the author of the well-known
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MS-DOS comm program PC-TALK III. It wasn't enforced after his mysterious
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disappearance and presumed death in 1984. See shareware , FRS.
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