[abalone]

“Still work”? Was there a time that shareware worked? Serious question.. citations appreciated.

Also it sounds like you are doing enterprise software. Shareware was more of a consumer pricing model. With enterprise you want to make it totally free for small scale grassroots adoption by champions and then monetize large scale adoption.

[aasasd]

Both Carmacks had themselves each a Ferrari before they put out Doom. “Commander Keen” bought those Ferraris.

Though I'm sure it was always a game of chance like everywhere in business.

[darkr]

You mean both Johns? (Carmack & Romero)

[aasasd]

Well, I had Adrian Carmack and John Carmack in mind, but frankly I don't really recall who it was, just that there were two of them.

Wikipedia mentions that “by mid-1994 John Carmack had purchased two Ferrari Testarossas,” so it's possible he was both of the guys. But I'm sure others did well too.

[tincholio]

He probably meant John and Adrian... both Carmacks and founders if ID

[trevyn]

And intriguingly, those two Carmacks are not related!

[EamonnMR]

Doom and Quake where sold as Shareware. Also, Ambrosia Software was flush with cash for a while there in the late 90s and early 00s.

[LeonB]

Shareware certainly did work for some, pre-WWW.

Distribution was not a solved problem back then, and required significant capital. Shareware use a viral engine of growth (though this did mean that there were far more products for which shareware didn't work versus the handle for which it did).