Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
From: doug-merritt@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: HELP! Corrupted Disks
Message-ID: <6632@cup.portal.com>
Date: 18 Jun 88 18:29:07 GMT
References: <1544@edison.GE.COM> <6428@cup.portal.com> <2281@antique.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 26
XPortal-User-Id: 1.1001.4407

I said:
>Instead use the freeware program Disksalv (from an early fish disk).
                 ^^^^^^^^
Charles Poirier replied:
>Shareware, I believe, unless he's changed its status.

Freeware means anything that is freely redistributable as opposed to
commercial that you pay up front for. Freeware emphatically does not
mean "public domain", but it *includes* that. It also includes things
that are copyrighted but redistributable, it includes software covered
by the GNU manifesto, and it includes shareware. In fact, the only reason
the term exists at all is to cover several different "free" categories
like that without having to name them off individually.

I'm aware that some people use the term a little differently, but then
again, that's true of most words, eh? Has the term made it into a late
model dictionary yet?

If you excluded shareware from the "freeware" category, then you'd have
three categories altogether: freeware, shareware, commercial. I'd say
that's a less useful kind of usage than simply "freeware vs. commercial".
	Doug
--
      Doug Merritt        ucbvax!sun.com!cup.portal.com!doug-merritt
                      or  ucbvax!eris!doug (doug@eris.berkeley.edu)
                      or  ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug