Can you compare freeware shareware and public domain?

Answer 1

shareware is a licensed product and only documentation is available but in any case you have to purchase. but on the other hand, freeware is a trial basis/or free of cost . shareware is a licensed product and only documentation is available but in any case you have to purchase. but on the other hand, freeware is a trial basis/or free of cost . Both are programs. Freeware is free forever where shareware may ask for a voluntary donation or upgrade to a "premium" version of the program.

Answer 2

The terms aren't entirely orthogonal.

"Freeware" generally means the software is available at no charge. Freeware is not necessarily in the public domain; the author may choose to give it away for free but wish to retain copyright... to prevent it from being sold by a third party, for example, or to insist that modified copies cannot be distributed because the author wants to retain some kind of quality control.

Public domain software is unencumbered by any restrictions (save those legal restrictions that a government may impose; for example, in the US it's technically illegal to export certain types of software, such as cryptography programs, to certain specific countries).

"Shareware" is software in which the copyright is retained by the author, who intends to charge some (usually modest) amount for it, but where users are allowed to try the software to see if it meets their needs before paying for it.

Whether a particular piece of software is considered freeware or shareware can be a matter of opinion. Some people consider software that requests users send the author a postcard to be "shareware", others consider it "freeware" if it's worded as a request rather than a requirement.

Public domain software is free is available at no cost

Answer 3

Freeware is software which, while it may be copyrighted, is free to use for anyone who wishes to. Many times the creator still owns the rights to the software, but chooses to release it for free. Open-source software is usually available as freeware, but users are also encouraged to modify the software on certain conditions. There are many different types of licenses that freeware and open source software is released under which give creators various controls over how their software is used and/or modified, but still allows it to be modified by users. GPL (Gnu Public License) is one example.

Shareware software is copyrighted software which is offered as a demo, but may require the user to purchase it in order to remove usage restrictions or to access advanced features. In this case the creator usually seeks to give users a demonstration of their software, and then pay to unlock continued use or extra features.

Public domain is any type of media or information which has lost its copyright or was never covered by any kind of copyright. Public domain software may well have once been a commercial product (boxware), shareware, or freeware but for some reason the copyright has either expired or has been nullified in some other way. It may also be software which was released anonymously or in some cases produced specifically for the public domain.

So, in a nutshell

Freeware - copyrighted but free

Shareware - copyrighted and sometimes free

Public domain - not copyrighted at all To find more about public domain see [http://www.public-domain-image.com/public_domain/public_domain.html Public Domain Definition]