just a bit of fun... what category are you?

[nudone]

i can well imagine this has been discussed elsewhere in an article or someone's blog but i've never really come across anything, so...

i'm wondering what is the most appropriate term to use when referring to someone that collects 'software' or more specifically,  'freeware'.

Zaine has used the term 'softaholic' which pretty much sums it up - is this the established term or has anyone got something else?

from the top of my head, all i can really come up with is a 'softaddict' but that is pretty much the same as Zaine's 'softaholic' and doesn't sound as good.

one term i did coin that i think pretty much hits the nail on the head is 'warez-cretin'. this describes the sort of folk that download all the warez stuff they can find yet haven't got a single idea of what the software is for - they just know that it's 'cool' to have the latest '0 days' release installed on their machine. i've known a few and they even had to admit they were 'cretins'.

anyway, back to the point - what are people that collect freeware. we know that stamp collectors are 'philatelists'. there ought to be an elitist sounding word for 'freeware collectors'.

(i need to know as i'm lacking an identity - there's no t-shirt i can buy that tells me who i am.)

[mouser]

i don't know of an official term, i just think of us as "software addicts" or "software junkies",
but softaholic is a hillarious term - i vote for that one.   

[Scott]

Why does it have to be freeware?  Zaine himself isn't just a freeware advocate.  From his own site:

Don't be a freeware zealot; that is, don't rate freeware higher than shareware just because it's free. I'm more than willing to register, upgrade, and support quality shareware within my budget. So should you if you want more great software to choose from.

[mouser]

maybe nudone was asking if their should be a special name for freewareholics.

[nudone]

yes, i'm just after definitions - not the politics of which software to go for.

it doesn't have to be freeware - i just thought there would be more collectors with larger collections of freeware. as it's free it's easy to amass a greater number of programs that you could ever use.

if it's not freeware then i wouldn't have thought the collections would be as big - if there also people collecting shareware and payware (what's the term for software that you pay for?) with large collections then they should be defined also.

maybe there should be a general all emcompassing term for someone that collects 'software' and then subcategories under this definition. the important part is the word 'collector' - someone that merely uses the software they need without storing programs they may or may not use is not a collector.

as a philatelist does not post any of the stamps he owns, but instead admires them for their rarity, so the free/software collector admires the programs he collects for their potential use even though he may not use them.

[zridling]

This is an interesting question, Nudone, and it would be great if DCC came up with a new word or term. Off the top of my head, I played with other words, too, such as:

__Freediver -- One who dives deep to find good freeware and surfaces with a gem
__Freewheeler -- Not bad
__Freeman -- but what about the girls?
__Freepster -- has a bad political connotation, but I don't know what it means
__Freebster -- similar, but without the bad connotation above
__Free agent -- not bad, but trite
__Free Loader -- I like it, but it has an inaccurate double entendre
__Free lover -- well now, aren't we all?

Well, it was worth a try. I'd like to find the word, because it is my experience that freeware often fills a hole that shareware/commercialware lacks. And yes, I don't appreciate people who reactively rate freeware higher just because it is free. If the freeware app is good enough for your purposes, that's fine. But that doesn't make it the best imo. Photoshop may be the best in its class, but I still can't even come close to affording it. But Image Factory is! (http://www.colour-science.com/if/home.htm). (Otherwise, my site would be named "The Good Enough List.")

[Scott]

I was trying to think of a word that combined the Greek root "philos" with "software", just as "philosophy" is "love of wisdom" (Zaine ought to know a bit about that).  I couldn't come up with anything decent though.  Philosoftie?  Ugh...

[nudone]

ha, ha, 'freeloader', that has got to be the best so far Zaine - i'd be happy to be one of those.

i really like where Scott is going with the Greek 'philos'. that would make a grand sounding term. are there any Latin words or maybe even other Greek words that would be appropriate?

i'll see if i can find anything in a few dictionaries.