wrote in message
ups.com...

Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:50:29 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

Then I stumbled across Unlocker. It's freeware, not shareware. Costs
nothing.

What is their business model that allows them to develop and
distribute free software without going bankrupt?


Never seen the concept before? There's several ways to do it. One, when
it gets popular, you then start charging for it, either straight sale,
or subscription. Two, you give away a stripped down version (lost
leader), but sell a "professional" version, similar to pkzip. There's
other ways to make it work, too. Do you remember when Peter Norton came
out with Norton Utilities? It was at first freeware, available through
PC Magazine. This was in the DOS days, and the program's total use was
to retrieve data that you had accidently erased from a DOS disk. As you
can see, it's grown into a very lucrative business!


And then, there's the other business model: Charge an amount of money that
actually reflects the value of the product, and make damned sure the product
is perfect and will make the customer so unbelievably happy that they'll
tell complete strangers who didn't even ask. Spinrite, for instance:

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Written in assembly language. Great program.

By the way, at the main page, www.grc.com/default.htm, there are some very
interesting little freeware utilities, which work and are safe.