To start things off here is a review of a nifty piece of software for amateur astronomy. The Celestial Observer certainly had no articles on astronomical computing. Indeed we used plain old typewriters to put the words on paper.
Today there is no shortage of offerings of computer programs for the amateur astronomer.
Shareware is a marketing concept unique to computer software. Although much shareware is copyrighted professional quality software it is perfectly legal to make copies and give them to friends. I bought my copy from a professional shareware distributor who charges a per-disk copying fee. To continue using a program after a trial period you must pay a registration fee to the software developer. For your fee you get professionally printed manuals, program updates and technical support just like you do from the big budget companies.