The First Time

[emeless]

Just how long has Freeware been around?
Most folks will remember their first 'love' encounter but what about their
first Freeware encounter?

I thought it might be interesting to hear from folks in this group (I've
been here for many a year under different sigs going back to the days of
SOS, Bambam, Tiger et al) about their First Freeware Experience as in:
The Year
Name of the Program
Still Use It (what version is it at now)
Or, What did it evolve to?


My first freeware experience was with Polyview back in 1994 IIRC.
I still use it (Version 4.0) but it is no longer freeware. I believe I paid
$10.00 (USD) for the license and, unlike WinZip, it remains free to update
forever.
It has evolved into a sophisticated graphics manipulation program but, as I
mentioned, is no longer freeware.

What about you?

 

[John Jay Smith]

The first freeware was used in ancient calculating machines, that are
considered the first mechanical computers

It was freeware because money was given only to make the hardware, the
software or then primitive program was not thought of as something that has
value, thus it was free.

 

[Terry Russell]

Just how long has Freeware been around?
Most folks will remember their first 'love' encounter but what about their
first Freeware encounter?

I thought it might be interesting to hear from folks in this group (I've
been here for many a year under different sigs going back to the days of
SOS, Bambam, Tiger et al) about their First Freeware Experience as in:
The Year 1977/78
Name of the Program emacs
Still Use It (what version is it at now)

how many grains of sand on the beach?

Or, What did it evolve to?

emacs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Stallman

 

[John Corliss]

I thought it might be interesting to hear from folks in this group (I've
been here for many a year under different sigs going back to the days of
SOS, Bambam, Tiger et al) about their First Freeware Experience as in:
The Year
Name of the Program
Still Use It (what version is it at now)
Or, What did it evolve to?

Probably the first would have been Archie and also Veronica. That would
have been back around 1992. Most people know how graphical UIs for
accessing the internet and ftp evolved and replaced them, but if
anybody's interested:

http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_browse.htm

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

Just how long has Freeware been around?
Most folks will remember their first 'love' encounter but what about
their first Freeware encounter?

I thought it might be interesting to hear from folks in this group (I've
been here for many a year under different sigs going back to the days of
SOS, Bambam, Tiger et al) about their First Freeware Experience as in:
The Year
Name of the Program
Still Use It (what version is it at now)
Or, What did it evolve to?


My first freeware experience was with Polyview back in 1994 IIRC.
I still use it (Version 4.0) but it is no longer freeware. I believe I
paid $10.00 (USD) for the license and, unlike WinZip, it remains free to
update forever.
It has evolved into a sophisticated graphics manipulation program but,
as I mentioned, is no longer freeware.

What about you?

I can't remember that far back. I had an Atari Mega ST (circa 1985) and there was lots of freeware for that. I
suspect there was stuff around for the Apple II and that's 1977.

 

[Michael Wardreau]

There's a lot of youngsters in this grooup. They go back as far as
1992 and maybe the 80's.!

 

[Eugene Esterly III]

It's has been so long that I can't even remember which freeware app. I
know that I downloaded my first freeware app during July 1997 (I've
been on the NET since July 1997).

 

[FTR]

It's has been so long that I can't even remember which freeware app. I
know that I downloaded my first freeware app during July 1997 (I've
been on the NET since July 1997).

10 years = long ago ??

Seems to be an American time calculation

 

[Terry Russell]

10 years = long ago ??

Seems to be an American time calculation

Was it worth 3 billionths of your life expectancy to say that?
Was it worth 3 billionths of your life expectancy to read this?

 

[Roger Johansson]

1984, There was lots of freeware programs for my first computer, a
Sinclair Spectrum. Most them came in written form in british computer
magazines, so I had to write them into the computer by hand, and it was
often thousands of lines of code.

Later we got the freeware on soundcasette tapes, and that time period
was also the beginning of using copies of commercial programs that
were made and distributed between friends.

The most advanced program from those days was a submarine simulation
program, which was first published in written form in a computer
magazine, later released as a commercial program on casette. So you
actually paid for the casette, not for the program, because it was both
open source and freeware.

It is like sending for a free linux version on CD today, you pay for
the medium and the postal service but the software is both open source
and freeware.

 

[Anne Carle]

10 years = long ago ??

Seems to be an American time calculation

Considering the way computer technology has grown, ten years is indeed
a long time! What other technology has had so many radical changes in
ten years? Not the auto industry, not medicine...probably not any
industry.

Anne/OH

 

[Eugene Esterly III]

Considering the way computer technology has grown, ten years is indeed
a long time! What other technology has had so many radical changes in
ten years? Not the auto industry, not medicine...probably not any
industry.

Anne/OH

I gotta agree with you there. Computer technology has grown leaps &
bounds over 10 yrs. I got my first PC in 1996 which was a 486 DX2
running at 66 MHZ with 8 MB ram (later upgraded to 16 MB) & an HDD (I
can't how much space it had) & that was sufficent for the time. Most
software including games used 8 MB or less or Ram.

My current computer (purchased 2 yrs ago from Best Buy) is a Gateway
550 GR running at 3.2 GHZ, 512 MB of Ram, 200 GB HDD, DVD recorder,
CD-Rom drive & 8-in-1 media reader.

Nowadays, many freeware apps require lots of memory. Look at games,
most commerical games require 128 MB, 256 MB & even 512 MB or ram to
run.

 

[Ron May]

I don't remember the first freeware program I ever used, but it
probably would have been a "type in" program for the Commodore 64 in
1985. More than likely it would have been from Compute's Gazette
magazine. I got into BBS-ing pretty quick back then with a 300bps
modem. It would throw text on the screen at teletype speed, so even a
slow reader could just follow along on a 40x24 character screen. There
were some free downloads around, but I really started getting into the
freeware thing a few years later with an Amiga 1000 and a blazing
2400bps modem!

 

[Gary R. Schmidt]

No real memory of what the first program was, but it would have been
pulled from a DECUS tape, and run either on a PDP-11 or a VAX around 1983.

First freeware on a peecee - probably Kermit, around about 1984-85.

Cheers,
Gary B-)

 

[Dewey Edwards]

Just how long has Freeware been around?
Most folks will remember their first 'love' encounter but what about their
first Freeware encounter?

What about you?

Not quite an answer to your question but my first experience was
giving away freeware.

1972, college, all my programs used large and small cap code.

College suddenly replaced the one termimal to ALL CAP. <CRAP?>

I sent messages to others that "it's your's, if you can just delete
it" (computer was 90 miles away, and affected my space allocation).

As to what my first freeware download ever was -- I was here in 1999,
using deja, and tired of it. If would be free agent.