Why is freeware becoming so attractive? How can anyone make money distributing software this way?

what is the growing trend in software development?

There are several people I know that work for companies that produce free software for businesses. They charge nothing for the software but they do charge for support. Most of the time business's are willing to pay for support. So they managed to keep the company up and running while giving away free software.

Freeware is often laced with ads and/or the software itself is a simpler version of a larger application which can be purchased after "trying out" he free one.

some people make software to help others.but most of the time they make the software free after selling a considerable amount.

nothings for free. theres usualy a price to pay for free softwair but not necicerily moniterily.

it depends on what you mean. many freeware developers only want to help people. others make profit by allowing advertisments on their websites, many use freeware to distribute trojans that steal money. however most free ware is actually just regular software that is stolen and redistributed (free and) illegaly

It's an intro into a marketplace. If you can get your software used by thousands of people, you have a customer base to sell additional software, other products, and perhaps a "professional version" of your freeware product. In fact, most freeware is a basic version of a product that has a fee based professional version.

Free Software is usually NOT bundled with any kind of adware/spyware. There are corporations out there, like Red Hat and Novell, that make money out of distributing Free Software. Other corporations, like Sun Microsystems, is following those footsteps.

The key point is: they don't charge for Free Software, they charge for the support. Also, note that when I say Free Software, I mean free as in freedom, not free as in free beer.

Other than the lite versions and ad riddled versions of software packages, there are other reasons.

In the past, I've developed several small applications to solve a problem only to find that others were experiencing the same problem. I gave the software away or traded it for other freeware because I did not feel there was a large enough market to develop and maintain the application.

A friend used his application as a marketing tool. The software was user friendly and simple yet it had enough potential to become marketable. Since he did not have the upfront capital, he sent out the freeware and waited on someone to contact him about modifying the software for a commercial application.

Freeware can also be used as a beta testing tool. Develop a portion of a larger application and release it to the public who will test it for free and provide free feedback. Nothing like having thousands of people help you find bugs in your applications for free.