2007 Shareware Industry Award Winners

[tinjaw]

The winners are now up on the website:

Shareware Industry Awards
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[justice]

This is the first time I hear from this, is there a freeware equivalent?

[Darwin]

FolderMatch?! Sure, it's "ok" (I even own a licence for it) but c'mon! It hasn't been updated in over two years and there are much more feature rich and easier to use candidates in its specific category (file and folder synching) - Super Flexible File Synchronizer and Beyond Compare 2 for a start... I can't believe it was a serious contender for best overall

[dbrosius]

Never heard MS Office (Best Business Application or Utility) referred to as 'Shareware'!!! 

[app103]

Never heard MS Office (Best Business Application or Utility) referred to as 'Shareware'!!! 

The latest version is, technically, since you can download it and install it and try it without having to pay first.

Previous versions that were available on a disk only, where you had to buy it first, are not.

FolderMatch?! Sure, it's "ok" (I even own a licence for it) but c'mon! It hasn't been updated in over two years ...

Programs should have been released within 16 months of the current nominations. Any program that has won in the past must have had a fairly significant upgrade in order to be nominated again.

hmmmm... 

This is the first time I hear from this, is there a freeware equivalent?

I was looking over the lists of winners, past & present, and spotted some that were definitely freeware.

Things like IrfanView, Inno Setup, ICQ, WinAmp 2x, PADgen, Google Mobile, Picasa, Yahoo Messenger, Google Earth, Mozilla Firefox, Open Office, Miranda IM, Pidgin, Mozilla Thunderbird.

And one puzzles me: Microsoft Media Player aka Windows Media Player. (winner in 2005 & nominated 2006)

Can you really try before you buy? According to the rules, you have to be able to try before you buy, for it to be considered eligible.

The media player is part of Windows and you have to buy Windows first in order to get it...then you have an option to upgrade for free when they release a new version.

Or are they calling it freeware, since you pay for Windows and they toss in the media player for free?

Can anyone clarify which it really is, technically?



^{I say we should all nominate FARR next year.} 

[justice]

any windows software requires you to buy windows first. so then wmp is freeware *grin*

[Nighted]

WinZip? [attach]

[tinjaw]

Nighted,

This is the first time I have seen that particular smilie. I love it. 

[cmpm]

They seem to be like 'doh'...Open Office-sheesh
should win or place second every year

Or is it throwing some freeware in there that finally everyone knows about, and other programs at their site that are overpriced and shareware.

I suppose I just don't like the word shareware, so kind of annoying to me.
It doesn't really communicate the intent, call it 'try before you buy'.

Google, filehippo and this site are the best I've seen.
With a few referrals from posters here to some sites.

[mouser]

why was this thread locked? someone is getting a jumpy trigger i think. i'm unlocking it.

[cmpm]

Or one could call it 'trialware' or 'freeware'.
Which ever applies to the program or service.
Though all trialware has limitations, some freeware has some also.
As we know, but for the beginners shareware seems misleading to me.
Not trying to change the world, just the right to know these things.

[rjbull]

I was looking over the lists of winners, past & present, and spotted some that were definitely freeware.

Things like IrfanView,

I think IrfanView is shareware - dirt-cheap, but you are supposed to pay - if you use it in a commercial situation.  At least, I paid up (some time ago) for just that reason.  Don't know if that applies to the other programs listed, though.

[Renegade]

Doc (Michael Callahan) went over the 'shareware' thing last year - basically, he sees anything that you can try first as 'shareware' - even if it's free. Essentially, you get to 'buy' it for $0.00... So free stuff counts.

This year Guitar & Drum Trainer lost out to VMware - It's good software and I use it fairly often. I posted some comments in a blog posting about this year's SIC here. The other software in the category was Help & Manual - more good software that I also use. I know the author of it as well - Alexsander Halser. He was there at SIC this year again and we hung out a fair bit. He's not fond of beer, but get a few glasses of wine in him and...

ALSee and ALSong were nominated this year, but didn't win.

I was a bit suprised by a few of the winners, but others were no brainers - e.g. When Firefox won, I don't think anyone was suprised in the least.

[mouser]

I also use Help+Manual, and my discussions with the author were very nice -- he seems like a great guy 
He should be winning a lot of awards with H+M.

ps. we've had a discount on H+M in the past and maybe we can get a repeat of the discount when we do our fundraiser at the end of the year.