Over the last few years the amount of shareware and freeware on my PCs has dwindled significantly. There used to be a time when I used software, mostly written by enthusiasts, all the time. There was backup software, media players and utilities left-right-and-centre. Now the only piece left is a codec pack with the last piece of FTP backup software having been removed last month.
Having spoken with friends and colleagues I don’t feel I’m alone in this. Microsoft, Google, indeed all the major players in the software arena now have broad freeware libraries of their own and the little guy has been roughly pushed aside.
They’ve gone to mobile phones where the innovation cycle is only just beginning and where they’re being welcomed by the major companies with open arms, so long as there’s money to be made from them.
I don’t know anybody who does or used to write shareware for PCs and Macs, but I do know a great number of people who have abandoned downloads.com in favour of live.com or google.com instead. This is a tremendous pity as we need to remember where this market came from. It wasn’t that long ago that the likes of Sir Clive Sinclair and Steve Jobs were sitting in their sheds creating masterpieces, and Bill Gates was using them to create what would later become the software we all use today.
With Windows 7 we have a stripped down operating system that includes fewer pieces of software, however there’s less need for them nowadays as the suites these companies will push you towards will do pretty much everything you need. It’s also the case that much of the functionality shareware provided was subsumed into Windows long ago. There’s also the fact that Microsoft have largely blamed poorly-written third-party applications for causing Windows problems in the past. It’s a pity that the guy in the shed doesn’t have the marketing muscle that they do.
Even the open-source community is now run by big players. Enthusiasts might be helping write the open-source applications of tomorrow but that’s pandering to the corporations, not being creative. You only have to look at mobile phone applications today to see what creativity truly is.
So the question remains, is there a need to install shareware in Windows 7? And if not, why not?
