Careware (also called charityware, helpware, or goodware) is

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

licensed in a way that benefits a

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * C ...

. Some careware is distributed free, and the author suggests that some payment be made to either a nominated charity, or a charity of the user's choice.

Commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

careware, on the other hand, includes a levy for charity on top of the distribution charge. It can also be a barter of some kind, or even a pledge to be kind to strangers.

Overview

The term "charityware" was credited to Canadian developer Roedy Green in a 1988 issue of 2600 Magazine. One of the first known uses of the term "careware" appeared in Dr. Dobb's Journal in Al Stevens' C Programming Column in about 1991. Stevens was developing a user interface library and publishing the source code in monthly installments. To distribute code to readers, Stevens suggested they send him an addressed stamped mailer with a blank diskette. He copied the code onto the diskette and returned it. He also suggested that to express their appreciation they include a dollar, which he would donate to the local

food bank A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough to avoid hunger, usually through intermediaries like food pantries and soup kitchens. Some food banks distribute food direct ...

Brevard County, Florida Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 606,612, making it the 10th-most populated county in Florida. The official county seat is located in ...

. Stevens named this distribution method "careware." Paul Lutus's careware idea involves no monetary exchange - instead it involves a request for the user to "stop complaining for a while and make the world a better place." For example, the vim text editor is

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

but includes a request from its author,

Bram Moolenaar Bram Moolenaar (born 1961, Lisse) is a Dutch computer programmer and an active member of the open-source software community. He is the original author, maintainer, release manager, and benevolent dictator for life of Vim, a vi-derivative tex ...

, that users donate to

ICCF Holland International Child Care Fund Holland is a small non-governmental organization that supports a project in Kibaale, a small town in the south of Uganda. The project aims at helping AIDS victims. In this poor area of Africa, many adults are infecte ...

for work to help

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

victims in

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

. Vim'
Charityware license
has been declared by

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman (; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

to be

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

-compatible. Another current example is MJ's CD Archiver, a file archiver for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

. The suggested charity is NACEF, a US-registered charity for

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Project Hope Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is an international global health and humanitarian aid non-governmental organization founded in the United States in 1958. Project HOPE works in five main areas: disasters and health cri ...

. A close variation of careware is

donationware Donationware is a licensing model that supplies fully operational unrestricted software to the user and requests an optional donation be paid to the programmer or a third-party beneficiary (usually a non-profit). The amount of the donation may also ...

, which has a stricter definition than careware.

Examples

Non-commercial examples

FireFTP FireFTP is a free, open-source, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox in the form of an add-on. It supports FTP, FTPS, and SFTP. FireFTP is charityware and runs on platforms that Firefox supports. FireFTP's layout is similar to that ...

KiXtart KiXtart is a closed source free-format scripting language for Windows. It is described as a logon script processor and enhanced batch scripting language by the official website. Its name is a portmanteau of "kick start". Overview KiXtart is devel ...

Peazip PeaZip is a free and open-source file manager and file archiver for Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, Linux, MacOS and BSD made by Giorgio Tani. It supports its native PEA archive format (featuring compression, multi volume split and flexible au ...

Vim (text editor) Vim (;
"Vim is pronounced as one word, like Jim, not vi-ai-em. It's written with a capital, since it's a name, again like Jim."

Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as "Messenger"), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the Microsoft Messenger ser ...

(through "i'm" initiative)

Commercial

Product Red Product Red, stylized as (PRODUCT) or (PRODUCT)RED, is a licensed brand by the company Red, stylized as (RED), that seeks to engage the private sector in raising awareness and funds to help eliminate HIV/AIDS in eight African countries, namely Es ...

References

{{software distribution Software licenses Information technology charities