What is Freeware?

   Copyrighted software available for downloading without charge; unlimited personal usage is permitted, but you cannot do anything else without express permission of the author. Contrast to shareware; copyrighted software which requires you to register and pay a small fee to the author if you decide to continue using a program you download.  Freeware programs are either distributed for the love of humanity, for fame, or as stripped down versions of programs that do cost money. Remarkably, some of the very best programs for using the Internet are completely free. Most freeware, even though it's not commercially sold, is copyrighted by the author. Always check the license agreement if you consider using the application for anything than your personal use.

   This is not to be confused with open source software which is released with it's source code (Programming commands in their raw state as input by a programmer) and the user is allowed to make changes to that coding and re-distribute the changes.  However just because a program is Open source doesn't necessarily mean that it is free, as some programs do charge you for purchasing, but invariably will have a better support team set up to assist with problems with the software.