demo software
Taking their cue from shareware creators, some software manufacturers are now releasing demonstration versions of their commercial programs for free. Often available for download at the manufacturer's Web site, demos give you the flavor of the real full-blown application but with some sort of limitation: perhaps the juiciest features are disabled, or you can't save anything you create, or the demo is a full working copy that simply expires after a certain number of days. If there's a pricey piece of software you've been fawning over, trying a free demo version is a great way to see if it's really worth the money.
See also: beta software, shareware
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