Acquiring Software

Hi to all readers,

For this post I want to share the article & to tell the readers who didn't know about software privacy, for people who know this topic, I just want to refresh back ur mind..

Firstly, sometimes software is free. Software is called freeware if its author chooses to provide it for free to all (eg. www.oswd.org ,there is a lot of free web design template). However, freeware is copyrighted; that is the author retains legal ownership & may place restrictions on its use. Software that is not copyrighted is called public domain software & may be used, or even altered, without restriction. Software developed by universities & research institutions using governments is usually in the public domain.

Open-source software is a variation of freeware. A freeware program is normally distributed in a machine-readable format that is unreadable by humans. You can use it, but even if you know how to write programs, you can't make changes to it. The developers of open-source software, however, make the source code available, which means that programmers can examine the source code, bugs are found quickly & improvements made. More & more commercial-quality software is being made available under the open-source concept, especially software designed to run under the Linux operating system.

Shareware is a category of software that is often confused with freeware. Like freeware, it is freely distributed, but only for trial period. The understanding is that if you like it enough to continue using it, you will pay a nominal fee to register it with the author, Many authors add incentives such as free documentation, support and/or updates to encourage people to register.

The software that people use most often is packaged software, sometimes called commercial software, such as word-processing or spreadsheet software. This type of software is usually copyrighted & cost more than shareware. You must not copy commercial software without permission from the manufacturer. In fact, software manufacturers often complain of software piracy, the making of illegal copies of commercial software. Microsoft & other manufacturers pursue violators to the full extent of the law.

What is the best way to purchase commercial software? The small retail software store has all but disappeared because the price of software has declined too much to provide an acceptable profit margin. So software has moved to the warehouse stores & mail-order houses, each with thousands of software titles. College students have another option; their college bookstore. To encourage students to become familiar with their products, many software publishers make their most popular products available through college bookstores at deep discounts.

Continued next post..

p/s : we must know where is legal & illegal, think carefully