You've heard shareware, and maybe you use it all the time on Windows, or maybe you never use it, let's talk about characteristics, stereotypes, rants, myths and facts about sharewares.

Sharewares are programmed by bedroom programmers who only know Visual Basic .NET.
Sharewares are only for Windows(they only use .NET Framework)
Sharewares are small pieces of junk that costs hundreds of dollars.
Sharewares help non-programmers produce .exe files(for example, Autorun Pro)
Sharewares' name end with "Pro"(while retail software's name ends with Professional)

The facts above may not be true all the time, but post your discoveries about shareware.

Here are a few I noticed:

• Shareware is usually high up on the search results for popular terms, like "dvd ripper", "create screensavers", "convert video to ipod", and "wave to midi"[/*:2fgl7p5y]
• Shareware often has a similar freeware program that does the same thing, sometimes even with a similar interface or open source[/*:2fgl7p5y]
• Shareware often has a nag screen[/*:2fgl7p5y]
• Shareware often has bugs[/*:2fgl7p5y]

Sharewares solve small problems such as video editing, making screensavers, recording screen.
I saw sharewares such as ASCII art generator where I can rewrite that program in Java or PHP.