What is difference between freeware,free software & open source

                 Most computer users usually do not know the difference in Freeware,free software ,shareware and open source softwares.There is a lot of difference in all these terms.After studying a lot of websites I found some real good facts that I am sharing with you.

Freeware:      :Freeware software’s are available to use with no cost. Proprietary software’s can also be freeware software. Freeware software’s are generally used by companies to help developers, students and communities to develop software skills while using this freeware software, but not to loose their business potential software companies don’t give the source code of the software’s. Freeware software is different from shareware software.

Shareware:       :Shareware software’s are used for marketing purpose. Computer users can download and use a limited version of software or full version of software for a limited period of time. We can say that Shareware software is just like “Try before you buy”.

Freeware generally refers to software that is copyrighted and the term shareware refers to commercial software that is copyrighted, but which may be copied for others for the purpose of their trying it out with the understanding that they will pay for it if they continue to use it.

Free Software:        :Free software can be used, modified and studied without any restriction. Free software can be copied and distributed with or without any modifications. A software is free when the end user get’s full software with the human readable form of the program called as source code with above permissions. Free Software Foundation maintains the definition of free software.

Open Source:            :Open source software can be defined as computer software for which the source code of the software is available under a copyright that must meet the open source definition.
There can be different open source copyright laws enforced by different software vendors.Hope this clears the difference between all of them.

 

Enjoy!!!