Downloading Software
by Andy Rush

There are millions of pieces of software out there, and more than half of them are available freely to download. So what does downloading software mean? Well, it's just a computer nerd term for getting software from one computer to another. People who create software for computers do it to make money (most of them). That's how it works. There's no sense in spending hundreds of hours writing and de-bugging a program, and getting nothing for the effort.

With the ever increasing use of the Internet, software programmers are able to reach a wide audience. They are willing to take somewhat of a gamble. They are willing to write a piece of software, and offer to share it with the world, with one small catch. If you like and use the software, you are on the honor system to pay for it. The author of the software will build in several ways to notify the customer how to register the software. This type of software is called shareware. The author shares it with others and if they like it, they buy it.

Now you might be thinking what gives people the incentive to pay for something that they are getting for free. Sometimes shareware authors build into programs what are called nag screens. Periodically, a message may pop up in the program that "nags" or reminds the user to register (pay for) the software. The author may also keep some features out of the free release and only enable those features for registered users.

Yet another way to help in assuring that users register is to make the software works for only a certain finite number of days, like an expiration date. No, the software doesn't go sour, it just quits working. This category of software is known as a demo. Many major software vendors, like Microsoft or Adobe, allow users to try out their software this way.

Another category on the other end of the spectrum is known as freeware. This is completely free software, written by people who just love to write the code. These people are the equivalent of computer philanthropists.

So where does one find these free, or nearly free, pieces of software? Why from shareware sites on the Internet, of course. And in order to get this software you need to download it from the author's (or distributor's) web site. Your web browser, like Netscape or Internet Explorer, allows you to not only view web pages but to transfer files over the Internet.

My favorite site to look for shareware or freeware is WebAttack. A couple more great places are Shareware.com or Tucows. Here you can find all manner of software. You can use the search tools to find a particular type of program. You'll then be offered links to the page where you can download the file. The name of the file will be "linked" to a site and simply by clicking on the name of the file, your web browser program will begin the process of saving the file to your computer.

You may now be asking the question, "What do I do now that the file is on my computer?" Files, like those from Shareware.com, are typically available in one of two forms. They are either an executable that can be double-clicked to begin the installation process, or they are an archive. If the file ends in .exe, then it can be double-clicked and the program will install itself. If the file ends in .zip, it is an archived set of files in a Windows compatible format. If it ends in either .hqx or .bin it is likely a Macintosh archive. So what is an archive? In order to make the transfer less of a hassle, you download ONE file that can be expanded into many files. The file is called an archive, and not only do you download just one file, but the files that make up the archive are able to be compressed. Therefore the archive can be smaller in size (in kilobytes or megabytes) than the total of all the files.

In order to manipulate these archived files you need a special program called a file extractor or expander. For files that are .zip you can use a program called WinZip. Windows XP has the zip reading (and writing) capability built in. For the Macintosh archives you will need Stuffit Expander. Once you have expanded the archive, you will see an installation file (setup.exe for example) that you can double-click to install the software.

Want to be let in on a little secret? When you view a web page you are actually downloading a file. Your web browser knows what to do with it because the file ends in .htm or .html and it gets interpreted (displayed) properly. There are other files that you can download like Adobe Acrobat files (.pdf) and Flash animations (.swf). Your web browser will recognize them only if you download the viewer software for them. You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader software, and the Macromedia Flash Player plug-in respectively. Your web browser can download virtually any computer file, however, it may not know what to do with it. So it will ask you if you want to open it, or save it, or do nothing with it. Also remember that a virus is a program that can be downloaded, or can be attached to a file, so be careful. For more information about downloading software from the Internet, contact Instructional Technology. Happy Downloading!

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