>I remember around a quarter century ago, I'd jokingly tell folks how software prices could be significantly reduced by having "sponsorship" where a portion of the screen/time would be allocated to advertisers. The standard mode would often interrupt you in the middle to show an advert ("we interrupt your regular application for a special message from our sponsors..."). The alternative was the "PBS mode" where most of the time you're get free uninterrupted use the software -- except for those times when you struck those "pledge break" periods lasting the entire day, where it would get longer interruptions in the normal usage and play a guilt-trip on you for not having contributed...

Exactly... except the guilt. It almost worked once or twice, and then I realized these guys are just simple beggars. Real beggars never vanish if you give - they always come again to get more. Would PBS/NPR stop if I paid? It would only encourage them.

And... you had just invented shareware, though in real life it has nag screens on launch - your version sounds more like something Symantec could cook up ;).