@David: Getting hung upon whether or not you're being labelled as a "shareware developer" is a bit silly, and maybe a little precious
I believe Ben's point is that it's essentially how you frame things in your head. This gets into a slightly fuzzy area, but agree that thinking of yourself as a "just a shareware developer" can be self-limiting. I don't think most people would picture a shareware developer as being a five-person company with office space, for example.
Clearly this is really depends on what you think of the term "shareware," but I agree with Ben that it has baggage. For example, if you go back to the Mac OS 8 days, shareware was nowhere near the quality level of commercial software. I also can't really think of any prominent individuals who did full-time Mac shareware development.
You may personally not have a mental connection between the word and the historical definition, but I think most people do. What Ben says makes a lot of sense to me, and I think using a different term makes plenty of sense when there's a different meaning. This is all just philosophical, though. Clearly we'll each use whatever we want anyway.
by Scott Stevenson — Jan 18
I believe Ben's point is that it's essentially how you frame things in your head. This gets into a slightly fuzzy area, but agree that thinking of yourself as a "just a shareware developer" can be self-limiting. I don't think most people would picture a shareware developer as being a five-person company with office space, for example.
Clearly this is really depends on what you think of the term "shareware," but I agree with Ben that it has baggage. For example, if you go back to the Mac OS 8 days, shareware was nowhere near the quality level of commercial software. I also can't really think of any prominent individuals who did full-time Mac shareware development.
You may personally not have a mental connection between the word and the historical definition, but I think most people do. What Ben says makes a lot of sense to me, and I think using a different term makes plenty of sense when there's a different meaning. This is all just philosophical, though. Clearly we'll each use whatever we want anyway.