Wolfenstein 3D, one of the most popular games of the early 90s
In the 90s, a popular model for selling software was shareware (as they were called then, “sharovary”). It was especially popular among independent developers. Thanks to the Internet, they could distribute their programs without additional costs or overhead. Everything worked very simply. I wrote a useful utility (for example, an archiver or a player) – and thousands of people can buy it. If the program is very good, you will become a millionaire in a few months, like 18-year-old Justin Frankel with the Winamp player.
In principle, this model still works today.
▍ Business models for selling software
Shareware (shareware) is commercial software with free use, but several voluntary or mandatory payment options for the right to use it. Some options:
- The full version is available for free, but the user can transfer an arbitrary amount to the author for purchasing a license (or as a reward), which is close to the donation model in open source. These are freeware and donationware models.
- The amount of voluntary remuneration can be fixed and tied to the number of licenses (that is, the number of jobs).
- The software may be free for individuals, but legal entities are required to purchase a license.
- A version with limited functionality is distributed free of charge, and after paying for a license, additional functions become available (freemium, i.e. freeware + premium).
- Adware is a free program with built-in advertising. In some cases, it can be disabled after purchasing a license.
- The full-featured version of the software has restrictions on the validity period, the number of starts or the number of game levels (trial or demo model). Famous program WinRAR is a successful hybrid of freeware and trial because it retains full functionality even after the trial period ends. Simply, every time you start, a window is displayed with information that the trial period is over.
Just close the window and continue working with the program. However, this does not prevent thousands of users from paying a daily license of $39.60.
There are also more exotic business models for bloomers:
- crippleware: Vital functions like printing or saving files are disabled here. Or the result of the work is watermarked in screencasting and video editing programs until the user buys the program.
- nagware: A derogatory term for sharing software that persistently reminds the user to purchase a license. The message appears when starting the program or periodically while working with the application. Messages come in the form of windows that cover part of the screen. Some leave a message on the screen for a certain time, so that it cannot be closed for several seconds.
In any case, a shareware program always provides (or demonstrates) some functionality without violating the terms of the license. This is the main condition for its distribution and the main driver of purchases. According to statistics, up to 25% of users of the trial (free) version of SaaS services subsequently become paid clients. And if there is no trial version, how can the client evaluate the value of the product? So now a free trial is a standard option for almost any SaaS service.
At first, shareware utilities were distributed via the Internet, BBS, on floppy disks and transferred from user to user. In the early 2000s, CDs with a selection of the best programs appeared on sale – “Shareware Collections” with tens and hundreds of programs on each disk:
Probably, such disks can still be found on the computer market today (for example, there are three such places in St. Petersburg, and in Moscow somewhere in the corner of the Savyolovsky market), as well as at online auctions with old artifacts.
▍ Examples of successful projects
In September 2023, the developers of the legendary WinRAR archiver set a new record, selling 5449 licenses per day. This is one of the examples of successful shareware projects from the 90s that has survived to this day and is thriving. 5449 licenses at $39.60 is $215,780 per day for a relatively simple working utility.
Even before the advent of WinRAR, a similar utility was very popular WinZipwhich is still distributed according to this model (21 days free).
There are other examples of success. Many people remember the history of Winamp. This legendary player was released in 1997. Although it was free to use, the license key cost $10. How remembers the author of the program, in those years an American student Dmitry Boldyrev, cash checks and ten dollar bills for the purchase of the program came in bags from all over the world. But the student himself no longer had anything to do with the development, because he sold the program to 18-year-old American hacker Justin Frankel, who paid him for his silence. Within a year and a half after its release, the program was downloaded 15 million times.
Over the years, the popularity of Winamp has faded, although many people still use this player (rather out of nostalgia). In 2013, after numerous adventures, dramas and intrigues, development was stopped, but in 2021 it became known about restarting the winamp.com project as a single platform for different services, subscriptions, podcasts and streaming. The launch was prepared by the new owner, the Belgian company Radionomy Group, which bought the brand in 2014. At the same time there was Winamp source code leak old versions.
But now this is not at all the same Winamp that it used to be:
In principle, the development and sale of software using this model can be considered as a primitive version of a startup, albeit with one employee and one or several simple utilities. Sometimes the author gets the opportunity to sell his “startup” to a large corporation. We have already talked about the well-known set of utilities SysInternals (Winternals) for administering and diagnosing Windows. Now it is distributed free of charge by Microsoft, but initially the author Mark Russinovich wrote them independently and distributed them using the shareware model. Most of the utilities were distributed free of charge, but professional versions were already paid, as was separate data recovery software.
Probably, someone else remembers such a concept as “cracks”, this is a way hack bypass the built-in protection of shareware and obtain the registration key in an illegal way. The crackers of that time remember with nostalgia the times when they broke all existing software as a hobby, giving humanity free access to thousands of useful programs.
Curious memories one of the participants in those events who unwittingly took part in the hack. It started with him writing a simple console utility, DateDesist, which changed the date on the machine, ran the program under test, waited a few seconds, then restored the date and exited. This was a useful tool purely for testing purposes. The author published the utility on various Sharovar sites, but was soon surprised to discover that DateDesist comes bundled with almost all popular crack kits in order to translate the date to the launch time of the Sharovar, which has a launch date limitation. This is how he, against his will, “hacked” half of the shared programs on the Internet.
▍ Our days
In principle, the shareware model still works. As before, an independent developer has the opportunity to create a small masterpiece in a few days/weeks of work – post it on the Internet and earn a lot of money. Only it’s done differently.
Firstly, the mobile platform has now come to the fore, so it is much more promising to write mobile applications that can be sold through Google Play and the App Store. All the stories of today’s single programmers who became millionaires in a few months are mainly from there.
Secondly, Steam and other platforms appeared through which independent games can be distributed and sold. In the 90s many games were released using the shareware model.
Chart of sales of shavar programs for July 1993, source
Crazy popularity of Wolfenstein 3D and DOOM owes a lot to the ball-and-socket model. The first free levels were distributed via the Internet, BBS and on floppy disks, and the rest of the game could be purchased in a boxed version. If these games were originally sold in a box, then much fewer people would have known about them, because only the lucky few had the Internet. But all it took was one person in the class who managed to get hold of the game, and within a couple of days it was distributed on floppy disks to everyone else.
Tom Hall, one of the DOOM developers, programs on a NeXT workstation. John Carmack bought these expensive cars for $10 thousand to all his developers after the success of Wolfenstein 3D, source
Indie games are now much easier to distribute thanks to centralized platforms like Steam.
Thirdly, independent developers have many additional ways to make money on the Internet, in addition to desktop shareware programs and mobile applications. These are paid web services, various bots (for example, for scalping at auctions, restaurant reservationscollecting rewards in P2E games, etc.), smart contracts, extensions, mods, searching and selling game objects (weapons, skins), etc. There are much more opportunities for an independent programmer to earn money.
At the same time, many programs are still produced using the classic shareware model. For example, the developer of this cross-platform manager fman earns $500 per monthmaking a modern simplified analogue of Norton Commaner as a replacement for Explorer and other default tools of modern operating systems.
There is even an opinion that it is now easier to make money on shareware than before, since many programs that were popular in the past (leaders in their niches) are outdated or are not updated at all. In addition, new convenient payment methods have appeared for users; now there is no need to send checks and banknotes by mail, as before.
On the other hand, today free open source analogues have been created for almost all popular sharing programs, so you need to come up with something new and interesting that people are willing to pay for. As an alternative to the old WinZip/WinRAR/7zip, there are more modern alternatives BetterZip (Mac)…
BetterZip
… or NanaZipwhich can integrate into the interface of Win 7, 10 and 11:
NanaZip
Fundamentally new programs are also appearing for new niches that did not exist before. If you look at a typical list of programs on the average user’s desktop and their distribution model, then there is a lot of real shareware (in different models) and open source:
- Chrome – free with open source version
- Firefox – open source + donationware
- Thunderbird – open source + donationware
- MS Office – shareware
- Foobar – open source + donationware
- Gimp – open source + donationware
- Notepad++ – open source + donationware
- Sublime Text 2 – shareware
- FileZilla – open source + donationware
- Mirc – shareware
- Anki – desktop version is free, mobile version is paid
- Bulk Rename Utility – donationware, proprietary
- Caustic – desktop version is free, mobile version is paid
- Pycharm – shareware
- renoise – shareware
- Games from Steam – demo or shareware
It’s the same on the phone – almost everyone uses some kind of free utilities in which you can buy a paid version or a premium account, and these are signs of shareware.
In general, the industry is alive and growing. But now this method of distributing programs has become standard, and they are rarely called “sharovary”, but they say “30 days free” or “lite version”, or they release different plans with a free tariff, a free version and donations (donationware), or a regular mobile application .
Many developers choose an independent career, and owning a business developing simple utilities and selling licenses is a great place to start. Such a business scales well, that is, you can increase your income by orders of magnitude with virtually no additional time investment.
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