Orphaned technology
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Orphaned technology refers to computer technologies that have been abandoned by their original developers. As opposed to deprecation, which tends to be a gradual shift away from an older technology to newer technology, orphaned technology is usually abandoned immediately or with no direct replacement.<ref name=":2">Leckie, Cameron. "The abandonment of technology". resilience. Retrieved 2023-06-03.</ref> Unlike abandonware, orphaned technology refers to both software and hardware and the practises around them.
Users of orphaned technologies must often make a choice continuing to use the technology, which may become harder to maintain over time, or switch to other supported technologies, possibly losing capabilities unique to the orphaned technology.[citation needed]
Reasoning
While technology can be abandoned due to an unfavourable design or poor implementation, abandoning a technology can happen for a variety of reasons.<ref name=":2" /> There are instances where products are phased out the market because they are no longer viable as business ventures, such as certain medical technologies.<ref>Ritter, Arthur; Hazelwood, Vikki; Valdevit, Antonio; Ascione, Alfred (2011). Biomedical Engineering Principles, Second Edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. p. 457. ISBN 9781439812334.</ref>
Some orphaned technologies do not suffer complete abandonment or obsolescence.[citation needed] For instance, there is the case of IBM's Silicon Germanium (SiGe) technology, which is a program that produced an in situ doped alloy as a replacement for the conventional implantation step in silicon semiconductor bipolar process. The technology was previously orphaned but was continued again by a small team at IBM so that it emerged as a leading product in the high-volume communications marketplace.<ref name=":0">Singh, Raminderpal; Oprysko, Modest; Harame, David (2004). Silicon Germanium: Technology, Modeling, and Design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 40. ISBN 047144653X.</ref>
Technologies orphaned due to failure on the part of their startup developers can be picked up by another investor. One example is Wink, an IoT technology orphaned when its parent company Quirky filed for bankruptcy. The platform, however, continued after it was purchased by another company, Flex.<ref name=":1">Staff, Connected World (October 2018). "October 2018: Abandoned Tech: When IoT Devices and Solutions Get Left Behind". Connected World. Retrieved 2019-07-16.</ref>
Examples
Some examples of orphaned technology include:
- Coleco ADAM - 8-bit home computer
- TI 99/4A - 16-bit home computer
- Mattel Aquarius
- Apple Lisa - 16/32-bit graphical computer
- Newton PDA (Apple Newton) - tablet computer
- DEC Alpha - 64-bit microprocessor
- HyperCard - hypermedia
- ICAD (KBE) - knowledge-based engineering
- Javelin Software - modeling and data analysis
- LISP machines - LISP oriented computers
- Classic Mac OS - m68k and PowerPC operating system
- Microsoft Bob - graphical helper
- Windows 9x - x86 operating system
- OpenDoc - compound documents (Mac OS, OS/2)
- Prograph - visual programming system
- Poly-1 - parallel networked computer designed in New Zealand for use in education and training
- Mosaic notation program - music notation application by Mark of the Unicorn<ref>(19 August 2008). Request by Sibelius users for a Mosaic to Sibelius conversion application. Sibelius (software)</ref>
- Open Music System - Gibson<ref>(2 September 2009). Opcode Web site finally taken down. CNET</ref>
Symbolics Inc's operating systems, Genera and OpenGenera, were twice orphaned, as they were ported from LISP machines to computers using the Alpha 64-bit CPU.[further explanation needed]
User groups
User groups often exist for specific orphaned technologies, such as The Hong Kong Newton User Group,<ref>"Reliving Hong Kong Newton User Group". Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2006-09-27.</ref> Symbolics Lisp [Machines] Users' Group (now known as the Association of Lisp Users),<ref>"About Us". Association of Lisp Users. Archived from the original on 2013-01-21. Retrieved 2013-06-13.</ref> and Newton Reference.<ref>"Newton Reference". Panix.com. 1998-02-27. Retrieved 2017-04-03.</ref> The Save Sibelius group sprang into existence because Sibelius (scorewriter) users feared the application would be orphaned after its owners Avid Tech fired most of the development team, who were thereafter hired by Steinberg to develop the competing product, Dorico.[citation needed]
