[common] Freely-redistributable software, often written by
enthusiasts and distributed by users' groups, or via electronic mail,
local bulletin boards, {Usenet}, or other electronic media. As the
culture of the Internet has displaced the older BBS world, this term
has lost ground to both {open source} and {free software}; it has
increasingly tended to be restricted to software distributed in
binary rather than source-code form. At one time, freeware was a
trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the author of the well-known MS-DOS
comm program PC-TALK III. It wasn't enforced after his mysterious
disappearance and presumed death in 1984. See {shareware}, {FRS}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {annoyware}{crudware}{dogwash}{FRS}{guiltware}{payware}{postcardware}{shareware}{-ware}]