Software, often written by enthusiasts and distributed at no charge by users' groups, or via electronic mail, local bulletin boards, Usenet, or other electronic media.

At one time, "freeware" was a trademark of Andrew Fluegelman, the author of the well-known MS-DOS communications program PC-TALK III. It wasn't enforced after his mysterious disappearance and presumed death in 1984.

"Freeware" should not be confused with "free software" (roughly, software with unrestricted redistribution) or "shareware" (software distributed without charge for which users can pay voluntarily).

[Jargon File]