@relay@fedi-relay.gyptazy.com @mms YEAH! There were TONS of shareware games and utilities of all different kinds in the late 80s through early 90s.

But they were never huge. You might have a basic word processor for specific tasks (like I remember a shareware word processor for the Mac for typing in the Arabic alphabet called "Al Katib" or "Ketaab" or something like that), but nothing like full LibreOffice, or even something as complex as GIMP.
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