Freeware is software that the author has made available without charge. There is no obligation to buy the software. You may be asked to register the copy or send a thank-you know to author. There are many different reasons why someone deccides to give their software away. ALWAYS be sure you are donwloading software from a known reliable source, and use virus protection. Freeware from unreliable sources could be intended to transmit a virus to your computer.

Shareware is commercial software for which the author requires you to pay. Generally, the software has an evalution period after, which you are expected to pay. Some times the software's advanced features are disabled (crippleware) so you can evaluate the software, but not necessarily use it fully - for instance, teh "Save" function might be disabled so you cannot save your work.

"Warez" are copies of commercial software which have been made in violation of the ownership rights of the software's owner. "It's just for personal use" does not might it right or legal. It's wrong. That's my opinion.

Microsoft's All in One Intenet software package - includes Outlook Express for sending and receiving email, Netmeeting for chat, Frontpage Express to edit web pages, built in support for reading newsgroups online

Netscape is now owned by America Online. Recent versions of Netscape have become bloated with unnecessary features, which make the software too big and slow unless you have the latest/greatest computer. Package includes AOL Instant Messagenger for chat, Netscape Composer to design web pages, and Collabra for particating in News groups, Net2Phone for making low cost telephone calls over the Internet.

Opera is the "alternative" browser for folks who don't want to support either Microsoft or AOL. It was developed by a company in Norway. It started life as the really small, really fast alternative to MSIE and Netscaape. Unfortunately, they've realized that people do want their web pages to do clever things, so Opera has created versions which have grown bigger and slower and more burdened with "integrated" features. It's not as big or slow as Netscape, but it's trying.

Eudora is probably the best stand-alone email program. It operates in Free mode with ads, Paid mode for registered users or "Lite" mode operating in the original mode without ads, but with limited features.

Pegasus is another widely used stand alone email program. Pegasus is completely free. It is a labour of love of one individual in New Zealand, who supports the software based on voluntary purchases of manuals for Pegasus. Pegasus also has a very feature-rich set of capabilities, and is very stable as it has been in use for a long time.

PocoMail is a relative newcomer to the standalone email programs. It has many advanced features including support for polling multiple email accounts, nested email folders, drag and drop, advanced security features, advanced filtering capability and many useful features.

It also crashes a lot and consumes enough resources that your system can become unstable. A good up and coming program, but not quite ready to declare that beta testing is done.

ICQ

AOL Instant Messenger

Microplanet Gravity