
                             1992 SHAREWARE GUIDE

                      Copyright (c) 1992, Another Company

        This Chapter copied by permission from Amother Company's
        1992 Shareware Guide, a catalog of hundreds of Shareware programs.
        The complete 1992 (or current year) Shareware Guide can be had by
        sending  $5 to: Another Company, Box 298, Applegate, OR 97530.


              Welcome  to  Another Company's 1992 Shareware Guide.  It
         is donated to the public as freeware to help everyone  figure
         out  which  shareware  programs might suit their needs.
             Even we are not experts, some of these listings  are  not
         descriptive enough and some  good  shareware  has  been  left
         out,  but as we learn, so will you.  We intend to update this
         guide annually.  Watch Shareware Guide grow!
             As freeware, please feel free to copy and distribute this
         disk to your friends and associates, as long all files remain
         intact and unchanged. As payment for creating this guide, all
         we  ask  is  that  you  consider  ANOTHER  COMPANY  for  your
         shareware purchases.

                          EXACTLY WHAT IS SHAREWARE?

                         (From a User's Point of View)

               Imagine going to a shoe store where the proprietor lets
         you  try  on  several  pairs of hiking boots, not just in the
         showroom, but lets you wear them for  several  weeks  through
         all sorts of mountainous hiking and bad weather.
              Lets   say   this  shoe store initially charges only for
         the  cost  of  the leather and rubber, perhaps $3 per pair of
         boots.  Later  you  pay the full price only for the boots you
         like and give the other boots away for your  friends  to  try
         out.  You'd shop there, wouldn't you?
              The store would get lots of customers, and wouldn't have
         to  do  any  advertising  at  all!  This store could actually
         charge less for the boots than other  stores,  because  there
         would be no advertising costs to cover.
              Of  course,  as  good  as  it sounds, this wouldn't work
         because boots wear, and it is a major task making many  pairs
         of boots.
              But  computer  programs  are  different. Each copy is as
         good  as  the  last,  they don't wear out (well, disk do, but
         programs don't),  and  there  is  very  little  manufacturing
         involved. A minute to format and a minute to copy, even less,
         with the right software, and that's it!
              And  so  you see the shareware concept. Anyone can be an
         author. Anyone can get a copy of the author's work by  paying
         a  shareware  distributor  merely  the  cost  of  librarying,
         copying and sending the disk, (typically $3  to  $5)  or  can
         even  get  it  for  free from an electronic bulletin board or
         from a friend.
              The authors make no money from all this.  So,  they  put
         commercials   in   their   programs   asking   for   payment.
         Specifically, you are allowed to try the program, then if you
         like it, you are required to pay the author for the  work  of
         creating it - but remember, only if you like it!
              This  is the American free enterprise system working  at
         its  best!  The  author  of  a  great  program retires to the
         Bahamas. The author of a so-so program, gets some money,  and
         hopefully,  keeps  improving.  The author of a junker is paid
         exactly what the program is worth.
             All  the  customers  are  happy,  or  they  wouldn't   be
         customers.  Unlike  shareware,  when you buy a regular retail
         program  from  a  store, you pay first, then hope you'll be a
         happy customer.

               Shareware can  be  anything.   Here  are  some  typical
         shareware applications:

                    Astrology
                    Algebra tutorial
                    Database for baseball card collectors
                    Video games such as Pacman, Monopoly, Chess
                    Drafting and drawing programs
                    Classroom management
                    Thesaurus

               The   appeals  for  money  can  be  as  varied  as  the
         applications.  Each author is in charge their  own  work,  so
         there   are  no   rules  as  to  how their commercials may be
         written. But there are some typical approaches. They are:


                            The Types Of Shareware

         * PUBLIC  DOMAIN:  The  author  writes  a  program,  not  for
         commercial  gain,  but  for  some  other reason, perhaps as a
         hobby or as a donation to the computer community. These  free
         programs  are called public domain.  The definition of public
         domain software as of  March  1991  is  that  it  carries  no
         copyright. All users are free to do with it what they like.

         *  FREEWARE: This material is copyrighted, so some rights are
         reserved by the author, but copying, sharing and professional
         distributing is allowed. The advantage of  freeware  for  the
         authors  and  the  public  is  that  changing the material is
         illegal. It  must  be  copied  verbatim.  Therefore,  if  you
         receive  a  copy  that  is ten generations old, no one up the
         line has fiddled with it. You can be fairly certain it is the
         same as the author intended, with nothing changed or removed.

         * ADVERTISING FOR OTHER PRODUCTS: The author has something to
         sell and uses shareware as the  method  for  advertising  the
         products  for  sale.  Here are two examples: A maker of video
         game  programs  gives away a game as freeware, but at the end
         of the game, a list of other games available for $15 each  is
         shown.  A radio antenna manufacturer gives away software that
         helps  radio  engineers with their technical calculations. In
         the program is a chart that shows which of the manufacturer's
         antennae would suit certain applications.

         * DONATION REQUESTED: The author simply states that donations
         are  requested.   Sometimes  a  specific  donation  amount is
         requested.  It is typical to see at the end of a video  game,
         a  screen  that states, "If you like XYZ Game, please send $5
         donation to Author."

         * REGISTRATION REQUESTED: The author requests that  you  send
         money  to become a registered user. The rights and advantages
         of registration vary. Minimum advantage  of  registration  is
         simply  that  you  have  honorably  paid  the  author for the
         author's work.

         *  REGISTRATION  REQUIRED: The author plainly states that you
         have a copy of the program for trial purposes  only.  If  you
         continue  to use it, you are required to send money. In other
         words, you own only a copy of the program, not the  right  to
         use the program until you pay for it. There is no way for the
         author to catch up with everyone who uses the program without
         paying,   and   many   people   simply   ignore  the  payment
         requirement. It is  an  honor  system.  However,  fortunately
         there are people out there who are honest and do send money.

         * OFFER IN TRADE: This method, often combined with  requested
         or  required  registration,  offers  incentives  to  send the
         registration money.  Typical  offerings  are  printed  owners
         manual  to  the  program, telephone support in which the user
         can call the author if  there  are  any  technical  questions
         about  the  program,  a  newer  or better version of the same
         program, and/or a newsletter that is sent to  the  registered
         users.

         *  CRIPPLED  SHAREWARE: The author makes a limited version of
         the program that doesn't do everything it is supposed to. The
         crippled version works only sufficiently to  demonstrate  the
         real  program's capabilities. If you want the real thing, you
         must send money to the author, who will then send to you  the
         real  program.  The extent of crippling varies as much as the
         authors vary. Some examples: A video card game that runs  for
         only  ten  minutes,  then  erases  itself  from  the disk.  A
         special database for keeping track of video tapes  that  only
         allows  records  for  20  tapes  until you buy the registered
         version.  Most shareware  distributors  will  not  distribute
         crippled  shareware  unless  their  catalogs  and disk labels
         plainly  state  the  limitation  of  the  programs.  Crippled
         shareware is rapidly becoming a rarity.

         *  DEMOS:  A  manufacturer  will  often make a disk that only
         shows what the real product can do, but  this  offshoot  disk
         doesn't  actually  do  anything  more  than  demonstrate  the
         product. Again - generally  considered  undesirable  by  most
         shareware   distributors.  There  is  one  demo  exception  -
         products that make nice pictures. One  paint  program  maker,
         for  instance,  has  a  nice set of outer space pictures that
         really make your VGA monitor look good. Users often like this
         sort of demo - just to show  off  their  equipment  to  their
         friends.


                         How Good Is Shareware?

               Once   again,   the   quality   of   shareware   varies
         considerably. Some of it is written by beginning authors  and
         is  very  simple.   In  many,  if  you press a wrong key, the
         computer needs to be re-booted. Some shareware  doesn't  even
         work!  Fortunately,  most  of  these  are  not distributed by
         anyone  unless  the  limitations   are   mentioned   in   the
         distributor's literature.

               Other  shareware  programs  are  fantastic. Some of the
         best business programs in the world  are  shareware.    Many,
         perhaps  most,  of the great video games are shareware.  Some
         special programs can be had  as  shareware  only.   The  only
         oxy-acetylene  welding  tutorial  that  I  know  about  is  a
         shareware product.

               The word processor that this text is being written with
         is shareware. It is called  Galaxy.   Galaxy  is  similar  to
         Wordstar,  a  big  commercial  product  costing  hundreds  of
         dollars, but in my opinion, Galaxy is much  better,  yet  the
         registration costs only $59.  I like Galaxy better because it
         does  searches  faster, has pull-down menus, and writes plain
         ASCII files, which is important if you operate on text  files
         with  different  programs.   (For instance, the MS-DOS "type"
         command cannot read files created by Wordstar.)


                      How Can Better Programs Cost Less?

               How can a better  program  cost  less?   Remember,  the
         author  has  never  had to spend a dime on advertising.  When
         you send $59.95 to the author,  you  might  typically  get  a
         printed  owner's  manual, a toll-free phone number to call if
         you need help and another program disk.  All this  costs  the
         author  much  less  than $59. So, the author makes money, and
         you save money, because no one pays for advertising.  On  the
         other hand, if you go into a computer store and buy a retail*
         spreadsheet  program  for  $300,  the  store gets $90 for the
         service of selling it to you (of the $90, most of it goes  to
         the  rent,  payroll,  etc).   Of the remaining $210, probably
         $180 goes to cover the advertising costs, and only  $30  ends
         up  in  the  author's hands.  And, of that $30, a substantial
         portion covers the costs  of  technical  writers,  packaging,
         and other costs.

         *  The  word  RETAIL  will  often   be   used   to   describe
         conventional, non-shareware programs.

               In  general,  but  by no means the rule, shareware is a
         bit simpler than other software. Many  of  the  big  packages
         such  as  Word  Perfect or Lotus 123 were developed by a huge
         team of programmers working full time for years  at  a  time.
         Shareware  is often developed by a single programmer in spare
         time after work.  What this  means,  is  that  the  shareware
         product  may  be less colorful, sort of plain vanilla, but it
         gets the job done.  For instance,  a  mailing  label  program
         from the world of shareware may come up on your screen in one
         color  only  and  with  very few boxes and fancy icons on the
         screen.  But it will do complicated searches and track 20,000
         names.  The store-bought, fancy  plastic-wrapped,  glossy-box
         label  program  comes  on your screen with 8 colors and fancy
         shadows around all the  pop-up  windows.   It  comes  with  6
         features not generally associated with label programs.


                                   Surprises

               GUESS  WHAT? There are little surprises in the world of
         software.  The glossy retail program might only handle 10,000
         names,  while  the  plain  shareware  program handles 20,000.
         Sometimes you can buy a shareware program and find  out  that
         it  doesn't  do  everything you would like.  You are out only
         the $3 or $4 that  the  copy  cost,  because  if  it  doesn't
         satisfy  your  needs,  you  don't  have  to register with the
         author.  But all too often you  can  buy  the  glossy  retail
         product  and  find it has a glitch, too.  For instance, there
         is a very popular $149 database program that can handle  only
         4096  records.  If  you buy it to track 15,000 customers, you
         lose $149!!!

               The  shareware  programs  may not be as fancy (although
         many are incredibly fancy, complete with all  the  bells  and
         whistles  you  can  imagine,  and  some  you can't), but they
         almost always get the job done that they are supposed to  do.
         This  is  because the authors want you to send money, and you
         sure won't do  that  if  they  have  left  a  hole  in  their
         programs.

               This  lack  of  fanciness combined with straightforward
         functionality which is typical with shareware makes  it  much
         better  than  conventional software in so many cases, because
         it is easier to learn to use.


                                 Requirements

               The requirements of shareware vary too.   The  majority
         are written to run on most IBM-compatible computers, many can
         run on any IBM-compatible, but many more require at least CGA
         graphics  capability. Nowadays there are several that require
         hard disks, 640k RAM or VGA monitors.


                           What About Instructions?

               Some shareware programs, especially video games, are so
         easy to run that you just start the program and can  use  it.
         Others,  such as databases and programming languages, require
         reading extensive instructions  first.   Those  that  require
         instructions  almost  always come with an instruction file on
         the disk. Sometimes these  instruction  files  are  elaborate
         disk-based owner's manuals.

         A QUICK NOTE ABOUT OUR NUMBERING SYSTEM: Our numbering system
         is  not  consecutive  and  there  are several numbers missing
         because of older programs that have been  discontinued,  etc.
         There is also a large gap in the 500's, so don't  be  alarmed
         if you can't find a program for every possible number.

         _____________________________________________________________
                                                          chapter end.




