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crippleware: n. 1. [common] Software that has some important functionality
deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a working
version. 2. [Cambridge] Variety of guiltware that
exhorts you to donate to some charity (compare
careware, nagware). 3. Hardware deliberately crippled, which can be upgraded to a more
expensive model by a trivial change (e.g., cutting a jumper). An excellent example of crippleware (sense 3) is Intel's 486SX chip,
which is a standard 486DX chip with the co-processor diked out (in some
early versions it was present but disabled). To upgrade, you buy a
complete 486DX chip with working co-processor (its
identity thinly veiled by a different pinout) and plug it into the board's
expansion socket. It then disables the SX, which becomes a fancy power
sink. Don't you love Intel?
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