Orphaned technology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orphaned Technology is a descriptive term for computer products, programs, and platforms that have been abandoned by their original developers. Orphaned technology refers to software, such as abandonware and antique software, but also to hardware and practices. In computer software standards and documentation, deprecation is the gradual phasing-out of a software or programming language feature.
For users of superior technologies that have been withdrawn from the market, there is a choice between maintaining their surrounding environments in some form of emulation or switching to other supported products and losing those capabilities.
Examples of orphaned technologies that still have or had a following after being dropped include OpenDoc, the Newton PDA (Apple Newton), the LISP Machine, the Prograph visual programming system, and the Classic Mac OS. The Apple Newton and LISP Machine are computer hardware.
User groups often exist for specific orphaned technologies, such as The Hong Kong Newton User Group[1], Symbolics Lisp [Machines] Users' Group[2], and Newton Reference[3].
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Orphaned Technology: Factors Inhibiting the Use of Data Management Software at a Northern California Middle School
- Dashed Dreams and Orphaned Technology
- Is DHTML Dead?