Commercial vs. Free Software Comparison Definitions

The following is definitions and examples of freeware, shareware, opensource, and commercial software.

Freeware- computer software distributed without charge

• Adobe Flashplayer
•  Mozilla Firefox

 Shareware- computer software that is distributed without initial charge but the user is encouraged to pay a small fee for continued use.

• Picnik 
• Screen-o-matic

 Open source- computer source code that is made freely available to the public by the creators

•  Google
•   Dictionary.com

Commercial software- software that is designed specifically for sale to serve commercial needs

        ·     Products from

      o      Microsoft

      o    Apple Computer