"Freeware" is used just to contrast it with "Shareware", which eventually you have to pay for. Other variants on the term "freeware" are "Postcardware" (send the author a postcard from your part of the world) and "Donationaware" (where you give a donation to a chairty of your choice or the author's choice).
Hmm looks very similar to PSPad, which is what I use. Have you used it? Care to share the difference?
When PHPEdit first came out it was ok and because it was free we tried to help as much as possible. Then out of the blue they decided to start charging for it, (I have nothing against shareware, I just don’t think it was ready). So I stopped using it. Now from what I can see it still crashes a lot and support is not the greatest. I used Zend for a while and it was great, but the license expired, now I am using Textpad, I might have a look at Crimson Editor, it looks good. FFMG
I don't use the FTP component of Crimson Editor but it works well for me - never had a crash - I've had up to a dozen or so open (tabbed) windows going when editing phpBB files or my phpLD directory files.
I'd reccommend Notepad++ - it's packed full of features, and its free I use it pretty much eevry day, No bugs, no problems,