International Shareware Day 2022
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Back in the day software publishers would release "try before you buy" versions of their products in an attempt to sell the customer. You would load a demo copy of a program then optionally decide to pay and "activate" or "register" it after purchase to enable all of the various features it may entail.
I was the proud owner of a humongous collection of shareware games that I would dutifully install on my mother's first computer for all the children in her care. It was a home made 386-40 with 8 megabytes of RAM, CGA graphics and an 80 gb hard drive ...
Which weighed about 80 pounds as well in the tallest Wells American tower case I'd ever seen. Ah, those were the days. Anyway my tastes are certainly not something the shareware market could entertain and I will likely write my own necessities if push comes to shove.
So today is International Shareware Day.
It goes down on the second Saturday of every December. This year that day is December 11. I don't do the shareware thing because I lost my interest in gaming a long time ago and do not find the prospect of debugging someone else's work all that edifying. You see, I debug my own stuff as a rule.
Regardless, when it comes to freeware, shareware or some other public domain offering I don't hold shareware to any standard and if it's your thing I think you should go for it !
Happy International Shareware Day !