Desperately seeking shareware?
April 21, 1997
Web posted at: 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT)
From Correspondent Brian Nelson
ATLANTA (CNN) -- It's free to try and cheap to buy. It's shareware -- computer software you can download from the Net or an online service and test out for nothing. And if you decide to buy, shareware is usually a better deal than similar programs sold in stores.
Shareware has become so big that some of the most popular shopping sites on the Internet, are devoted to shareware. These four sites, alone, give you thousands of choices.
Still not enough? Try Desktop Themes for a little shareware whimsy.
Here, you'll find hundreds of images to turn your desktop into a theme park. The selections of icons, backgrounds and screen savers are separated into 17 topics including adult, cartoons, sci-fi, sports and products.
A few of the images are available for free, but to access everything requires a membership fee ranging from $4 for a month to $35 for a year.
The search engine is designed for Java-enhanced browsers.
Desktop Themes describes itself as "the BEST place to come for your Win95/ NT 4.0 Desktop personalization," meaning Mac users need not bother.
Pass The Shareware Please is another site that doesn't bother with modesty.
"PTSP is the only site that lists just quality, 'to die for' shareware sites!" it exclaims.
In other words, it links you to an enormous number of shareware choices. (You have to scroll down to find them).
Pick educational subjects. Or find a new computer game. There's even shareware to teach you how to make the perfect martini, or pick up where you left off many years ago when you stopped practicing the piano.
Sample screens help you decide quickly whether or not you want to try out a particular shareware program.
Pass The Shareware Please is friendly to all operating systems.
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