is Reaper Shareware?

Alright don't all fire at once - it's a serious question. I went to meet some guys I never met before thinking about forming a new band and after playing a few songs and relaxing a bit I had to open my mouth and say "does anyone here do home recording", well turns out that two of them did, and they both had Protools. Then this producer guy said "do you have Protools then? I told them I use this this other software called Reaper and the dude says "I have heard of that, that's the free one right? I says "It's not free" He says "Oh shareware then" I says "No" I must have sounded a bit indignant cos then he says "Oh alright - sorry" and gave me a funny look Anyway on the way home I got to thinking about shareware and I thought about some that I know and the only thing I could remember about the license is that it usually comes as a trial that you can use for a period of time and after that you should either uninstall it or pay for a license. however a lot of it still works if you don't buy a license. So I am wondering was the producer dude right, and me in my protective fanboi mode jumped to a conclusion without thinking it through. If Reaper is not Shareware what's the diff?

Uncrippled Trialware?

"Shareware" is one of those words that's so often misinterpreted, or subject to differing interpretations, that the word has no functional meaning. I dislike words like that. When people ask me I say Reaper is free to evaluate, and doesn't have restrictive copy protection.

REAPER is "SchwaWare"!

I've never seen this kind of ...ware before. It's not really shareware, honorware, donationware...and it even doesn't match with one of those items in this list. Maybe "Cockosware" is missing. Michael

ReaWare? CockosWare? I am more of the mindset that it is more "Uncrippled Trialware" as well.

Yes, I'd say that in fact it's the same as Cubase or ProTools or whatever you'd like to name in this market. The only difference is the way of distribution. It's neither freeware nor "shareware" So, although you could use it after the trial period, 'cos it's uncrippled, doesn't mean it is legal to do so, I think. -Data

Yeah Justin is not on board with "schwaware." Unless you mean the feeling of dread he gets when he looks over my code commits.

It's not really shareware by definition nor does it fit entirely in any other category. The attempt to distinct it from normal payware with any of these existing terms has maybe done more harm than benefits. Maybe it's time to coin some new word for that, ideally pointing in one short word to the "free to evaluate" and "doesn't have restrictive copy protection" thing and maybe even avoiding the "-ware" ending. It would be nice to get over all these distinctions for good but many people are highly confused if something doesn't fit into a known category, so I'm afraid the only way to get rid of that question/discussion/misconception is an Ilok and a $900 price tag or a new category. :)

I don't know what it proves but 18 posts in about forty five minutes, and when i looked at the members online, about a third of them were reading this thread. You can't really tell someone to read the license if you are just recommending it.