Well, if you want to be technical - the rise of shareware was mostly about the distribution model. Shareware came about when distribution was very expensive. Y

Well, if you want to be technical - the rise of shareware was mostly about the distribution model. Shareware came about when distribution was very expensive. You needed to have retail channels to sell software - which is why software and hardware channels went hand in hand. If you wanted to sell Norton Commander, you needed to manufacture it, send it to stores, sell it, etc, etc. All very expensive. So the idea behind Shareware was - make as many copies as you like, give them to your friends, if you like, send me some money. Obviously not everyone sends you money, but your distribution was free. In a time where distribution was expensive, this was a big deal. You could make money from the occasional $20 contribution from what was a comparatively massive distribution channel - rather than charge many times more than that and have fewer sales. It enabled "smaller" applications to thrive. Now - this isn't really applicable today. Distribution isn't as expensive as it was. So the same rules don't necessarily apply. Not to say you shouldn't adopt the shareware, or philosophy of shareware, or some of the models - but depending on what you want to do there are many more options available to you nowadays. Have a think about your solution and how best to put it in the hands of people that need it.