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By Jim Knopf
As many ideas are, the concept of shareware was born simultaneously in two places. In Tiburon, CA, it came to life in the form of the program PC-Talk, fathered by Andrew Fluegelman. In Bellevue, WA, it sprang into existence as Easy File, the brain child of Jim Button.
I'm Jim Button, the father of Shareware, and this is my half of the story. Originally titled "How did I get into this mess?", this is the tale that I finally put on paper in 1987.
I needed a program to print mailing labels for a local church congregation. I had an Apple computer, so I created from scratch something to meet my needs using Applesoft BASIC. I wanted more than just a label printing program, so I wrote a general purpose database program. I was so pleased with what I produced that I continued to work on and improve the program as a hobby.
Soon thereafter, in November of 1981, the IBM Personal Computer was announced. I knew instantly that the machine would revolutionize the personal computer industry-so I sold my Apple computer that very same day and placed my order for one of these new computers.
My first task was to convert my database program from Applesoft BASIC to IBM BASIC. Fortunately, this proved relatively simple. It took me only a few days to get the tiny database program running happily on the IBM PC.
Ironically, I was working for IBM at the time. Many of my fellow IBM'ers were receiving their first PCs. As an old hand at personal computing and being anxious to get my comrades off to a good start, I shared my database program with many of them. This simple sharing of a good thing was the germination of PC-File. It didn't have its final name yet (I originally called it "Easy File"). The application soon became a hit at the Seattle offices of IBM and then throughout the Seattle area, as enthusiastic users of the free program shared copies of it with friends and associates.
I used the database program to keep track of its own growing number of devotees. But problems soon developed. Notifying loyal users of fixes or improvements became prohibitively expensive and time consuming. How could I weed out those with only a casual interest from those serious users who required and desired these enhancements? How could I afford to send mailings to notify them of the availability of improvements?
I decided to embed a message in the program asking for those who received and used the program to send a modest, voluntary donation to help defray my costs. The message encouraged users to continue to use and share the program with others, and to send $10 if they wanted to be included on my mailing list.
The first person to receive the program with its unusual request telephoned me almost immediately. He had also received a copy of PC-Talk, a program with a similar message. He was excited by the similarity in the two requests, and felt that I should get in touch with PC-Talk's author, Andrew Fluegelman. I examined the PC-Talk disk. Upon reading Andrew's request for other programmers to join with him in this unique "marketing experiment," I decided to mail my program to Andrew.
Andrew was impressed. He telephoned me immediately and we decided to jointly reference each other on our distribution disks. I would rename my program to PC-File, to complement the PC-Talk name that Andrew was using. I would request a voluntary payment of $25, to exactly match the amount he was suggesting.
I could not have predicted what would happen next. My wife said that I was "a foolish old man" if I thought that even one person would voluntarily send me money for the program. I was more optimistic. I suspected that enough voluntary payments, perhaps several hundred dollars, would arrive to help underwrite the expansion of my PC hobby. In my wildest dreams, I thought perhaps a thousand dollars, might eventually show up in the mail. But my tiny post office box overflowed with the responses from a wildly enthusiastic public.
The market was ready for shareware. PC's were selling like hotcakes, and there few database programs were available. Other programs were burdened with clumsy copy protection schemes, while PC-File encouraged users to share. My program, with its modest request for a donation, competed with high-priced alternatives. While other programs had to be bought to be tested, this program could be used extensively before purchase. Other programs were sold from retail stores. Here was a radical new marketing idea, and the computer magazines were hungry for just such meaty topics to write about. The result: much free publicity for PC-File®.
Another phenomenon assured the success of Shareware. The biggest computer clubs the world has ever known began springing up all over the country. Club librarians were desperate for programs to share with their members. The Shareware approach was perfectly suited for these clubs. More free publicity-and a perfect vehicle distributing shareware disks far and wide.
A man named Doug Clapp wrote a stunning rave review of PC-File for PC-World magazine. My family and I were vacationing in Hawaii when the magazine hit the news stands. The response was so overwhelming that our house sitter had to cart the daily mail home in grocery sacks. Upon our arrival home, we were greeted by grocery bags strewn across the basement floor. We had to step over and around piles of letters just to get into our basement office. My son John worked days, evenings and weekends for most of the summer to catch up with this correspondence. Life would never be the same for any of us!
I had always said that I would never consider leaving my secure job with IBM until I was receiving at least twice as much money from another source. Little did I know that by the end of the summer of 1984 I would be making ten times as much with my little software business. Still, I would not have left IBM voluntarily.
Unfortunately, my body forced me out. I could no longer work a full 8 hour day with IBM, and then come home to another 4 hours of work each evening. Saturday and much of Sunday were also consumed by my second job. I felt as if I had lassoed a dinosaur, who was shaking me around fiercely. I just couldn't let go of the rope. I was facing a huge fork in the road.
Finally, I had to sit down and have a good long talk with myself. "Jim, if you can do this well in the software business by treating it as a part time hobby, how well would you do if you took it seriously?" I summoned the courage to do what my body had been demanding of me for months. I resigned from IBM. The rest, as they say, is history.
My software company now has over ten products in its product line, and 18 employees working to keep the business running and turn out even more and better products. Shareware has established itself as a respectable marketing method. PC-File, my little part-time hobby database, has a devoted following of nearly a million users.
Postscript: At its peak, just a few years after I ended my story in 1987, the company had over 35 employees and grossed over $4.5 million annually.
So you thought Jim Button was the Father of Shareware! And in a way, he is. I published under the pseudonym "Jim Button® " because it's a more marketable name. Besides, my real name (Knopf) means "Button" in German.
The title "The Father of Shareware" is not self-ascribed. It was given to me in 1985 by Peter Norton, a good friend.
The term "shareware" as applied to this form of software distribution is somewhat new. Andrew and I began by calling using the term "freeware." All of these words have taken on different meanings now, and "shareware" has come to be the most commonly used word.
In 1992, I had a heart attack-at the tender age of 49! I realized then that the software business was too stressful for an eastern Washington beet kickers farm boy and decided to eliminate the pressures. I sold all my business assets last year. In my retirement, I am going to enjoy my family and the peace and solitude of the Pacific Northwest. You'll find me now with a grandchild on my shoulders... or a fly rod in my hand!
Reprinted with permission by Jim Knopf. You can visit Jim's Web page at http://www.halcyon.com/knopf/jim.html or send him e-mail at knopf@halcyon.com
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