What is ShareWare? In 1982, Andrew Fluegelman, a California programmer, wrote a well-known MS-DOS communications program called PC-TALK III. After failing to find interest from traditional distributors, he decided to give the software away and ask for a donation from anyone who liked the software. He called it "freeware" and even trademarked the name. This stopped others from using the term for marketing without his permission. He did not continue developing the software and was not very successful. The trademark wasn't enforced after his mysterious disappearance and presumed death in 1984 (src:The Jargon File). Around the same time, Jim Knopf (also known as Jim Button), a programmer in Washington state, wrote a program that was initially a mailing label program. He marketed EASY-FILE "user supported software". He also decided to give the software away and ask for a donation. Button renamed the program to PC-FILE. He did very well with the product mainly because he continued to add features. In 1983, Bob Wallace, came out with a word-processing program, PC-Write that he sold as "shareware". Other smaller programs appeared and they were distributed as either "freeware" or "user supported software." Unfortunately, they could not legally use the term freeware since that was a trademarked term. The term user-supported software was too cumbersome. A magazine contest to name the marketing method selected shareware as the favored name. Bob Wallace, the first nown user of the term, said it was okay for anyone to use the name. There is controversy over who originated the shareware concept, Fluegelman or Button. For this reason, they are listed as co-creators.