SHAREWARE - A CONCEPT WHOSE TIME HAS COME

          In  my  shop I am often asked, "How can you sell software for the
          price you are selling it for - what is the catch?", or "How can a
          program that cost only $5.00 be worth anything?" One of the first
          things we attempt to make our customers aware of is that  we  are
          not "selling" the software in our library. The author receives no
          part of our small copy fee, nor does the author compensate us for
          distributing  his software. The small fee that we receive for the
          disks you purchase covers the acquisition and maintenance of  the
          library,  the  cataloguing,  labeling, disk cost, what support we
          offer, etc. What you are purchasing is a disk that  contains  one
          or more functional pieces of software for you to review to see if
          it  will  work  for you. If it does what you expect it to do, you
          are obligated to register it with the author. When our  customers
          register a program they got from us with the author, we give them
          a  credit  that  can  be  used  to purchase any other disk in our
          shareware catalog. All we need to issue this credit is  the  name
          of  the  program, name and address of the author, and a photocopy
          of the author's acknowledgement.

          Our library consists of  over  40,000,  many  of  which  you  can
          download from computer bulletin boards, obtain from friends, etc.
          Most  of  our customers feel that our "added value" is well worth
          the small copy fee. When you purchase a shareware disk  from  us,
          we  encourage  you  to  share it with your friends (and also tell
          them where you obtained it.)

          The vast majority of our programs come directly from the  author.
          The  major  advantage of that is that you are assured that all of
          the files are intact, the latest version is  being  offered,  and
          the  documentation and text files have not been altered. The only
          thing we do is to add our GO.BAT file and, if there is room,  our
          viewing  utility  and text file. Where appropriate, we may rename
          the author's start-up information file to be consistent with  all
          of  the  other  disks  in  our library, but never modify the file
          itself.

          Shareware is simply a marketing concept - try before  you  buy  -
          the ultimate in money-back guarantees. It is not "free" software.
          Authors  write a program, put it into the shareware pipeline, and
          expect to be compensated for their efforts by those who  use  and
          find their efforts useful.

          You are encouraged to use the program(s) for a few weeks, then if
          you  find that it is something you intend to continue to use, you
          are obligated to "register" the  program  with  the  author.  The
          registration   fee   and   author's   address   will  be  in  the
          documentation on the disk. This registration is far less than the
          cost of comparable commercial software.

          It is not uncommon for a customer to come in and claim that  they
          "know" about this type of software - and that it is, for the most
          part either junk, demo versions or incomplete versions. Much like
          the  post  World  War  II  efforts of those smiling young men who
          brought us Pearl Harbor, in the early  stages  of  the  shareware
          concept  those comments might have been valid. But as the concept
          matured, so did  the  product,  and  today  some  of  the  finest
          software  available anywhere is in the shareware pipeline. With a
          library of well over 40,000 programs, it is obvious that each and
          every one is not a top-quality product any more than  every  book
          in  your public library is a magnificent piece of literature. But
          we do have many, many top-quality programs. We do  not  knowingly
          carry  "demo"  or "crippled" versions of software except for rare
          cases, and in those cases the program is labeled as such.

          It is also not uncommon for a customer to come in and  inform  us
          that  shareware  is made up primarily of games and normally is of
          interest only to kids. We don't hesitate to  politely  show  that
          customer where he or she is dead wrong.

          Who  uses  shareware?  Corporations  and individuals all over the
          world use shareware. Among the customer list  of  a  single  word
          processor  -  Galaxy  Word  -  you  will  find  such giants as 3M
          Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Rockwell International,  U.S.
          Army  Corps  of  Engineers,  MCI, United Auto Workers, the United
          Nations, NASA, and even IBM (who has their own  word  processor),
          to name a few.

          If you are interested in a word processor, database, spreadsheet,
          or  virtually  any  other  type  of  software, you can purchase a
          commercial application for several hundred dollars,  or  you  can
          try  several shareware programs in our library at $5 each. If you
          find that the commercial  program  simply  doesn't  do  what  you
          thought  it  would  do,  once  you  have  broken  the seal on the
          package, all your dealer can do is say, "I'm sorry", and you  are
          stuck with an expensive piece of "shelfware" - and I have more of
          that  than  I  like to think about. If, for example, you try four
          word processors in our library before you find one that  you  are
          comfortable  with,  when you register that one you like (at a fee
          substantially less than the commercial program),  you  know  that
          you  have  a  program that will work for you at a cost of only $5
          per  disk  for  the  shareware  disks  you  purchased  plus   the
          registration  fee  that  will  be anywhere from 10% to 50% of the
          comparable commercial program.

          What is the  real  difference  between  commercial  software  and
          shareware?  The  bottom  line  is nothing more than the method in
          which the two are marketed. It takes millions of dollars to get a
          good (or bad) commercial program into the  marketplace.  However,
          it   doesn't  take  full  page  ads  in  national  magazines,  an
          impressive office building,  expensive  autos  and  perks,  fancy
          packaging,   and  beautifully  produced  manuals  to  produce  an
          outstanding program. An individual with  an  organized  mind,  an
          inexpensive personal computer, and a lot of patience can do it on
          his  kitchen  table.  There  are  numerous examples of commercial
          programs which were later changed to shareware programs and a few
          shareware programs which later changed to commercial programs.

          What do I do about a manual? Some of the programs in our  library
          are  menu  driven  and  no  manual  or documentation is required.
          Others have full documentation on the disk. The documentation may
          range from a few paragraphs to several hundred pages -  depending
          upon the program.

          What  kind of support is available? Depending upon the individual
          author, support can range from little or  none  on  some  of  the
          smaller  programs  to  some  of  the  finest  support  available,
          including toll-free support lines.  Our  support  is  limited  to
          assisting  you  in  the  installation  of  the  program  on  your
          computer, getting you to the author's main screen,  and  printing
          the  documentation  (if any) that is on the disk. From that point
          the software is "user supported". Questions  should  be  directed
          either  to  the author or a local expert. Read and understand the
          manual before you attempt to use the program.

          The obvious question is, "Who is going to know whether or  not  I
          register  the  software I use?" You are going to know! It doesn't
          take too swift a mind to realize that if the authors do  not  get
          compensated  for  their  efforts, they will stop putting software
          into the shareware pipeline and we will lose an incredible source
          of fantastic programs and a ridiculously low price.

          The next question is , "How many programs  have  you  registered?
          Obviously  we  have  not registered every program in our library,
          but we have registered each  and  every  program  we  use.  these
          include   our   menu  program,  disk  labeling  program,  copying
          software,  numerous  utilities,  word  processor,  communications
          software, several games and numerous personal programs.

          We  also  have  three  other  types  of software in our library -
          Public Domain, Bannerware, and Commercial software.

          The Public Domain software is software that has been placed  into
          the  public  domain  with no copyright retained by the author. It
          comes from any number of places.  As  an  example,  all  software
          (except classified) that is created by the government or with tax
          dollars  belongs  in  the  public  domain. In other cases, people
          simply create programs for the fun of it  and  place  it  in  the
          public  domain for others to enjoy. Many utilities and games fall
          into  this  category.  Then  there  are   programs   created   by
          professionals,  universities,  etc.  who  do  so  simply  for the
          exposure.

          Bannerware is similar to Shareware in that the author retains the
          copyright and all rights to the software, but offers  it  to  the
          public with no request for compensation. You would not be able to
          legally  modify  Bannerware  and re-distribute it, where with the
          Public Domain software you could do anything  you  wanted  to  do
          with it.

          The final type of software we carry is Commercial software. It is
          far   more   expensive  than  the  Shareware,  Pubic  Domain  and
          Bannerware, and its disadvantages have been  noted  above  -  the
          major  one  being  that you might pay some $500 for the software,
          find that it doesn't do what you want it to do, resulting  in  an
          expensive  piece  of  "shelfware".  The  advantage  of commercial
          software is that in some types of applications there are not  yet
          any   shareware  programs  of  the  quality  of  those  specialty
          commercial programs.

          The  bottom  line  is  that  we  have  an  incredible  array   of
          outstanding software. You have the opportunity to try one or more
          of  these programs for our small copy fee. If you find nothing on
          the disk you can use, all you have done  is  purchased  a  fairly
          expensive  data  disk  that  can  be  reformatted  and  used  for
          something else.  If you find a program or programs that  you  can
          use, and if you register those programs with the author, you will
          both  perpetuate  the  shareware concept and enable us to provide
          you with the finest  software  available  at  a  most  reasonable
          price. If you support shareware, shareware will support you.
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