In tech culture, the term "vaporware" was first used in reference to which product?

And now, for some context Typically used to describe a product that was announced but never launched, "vaporware" was reportedly coined by a Microsoft engineer (either John Ulett or Mark Ursino) when asked about the status of the company's Xenix operating system . The term was popularized by technology writer Esther Dyson, who featured it in the November 1983 issue of her newsletter RELease 1.0.

The term "vaporware" is a portmanteau of vapor and software, evoking the image of something promised but never materializing – something that seems to disappear into thin air. It is often used to describe products that are announced with great fanfare but are either indefinitely delayed or never released at all. The concept also extends to products announced far in advance of their anticipated release dates, which then seem to vanish into thin air.



The word first gained traction in the context of Xenix OS, a version of Unix that Microsoft developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Unix was developed by Bell Labs and licensed by AT&T to various outfits, including Microsoft, who had to choose a unique name for their version later called Xenix. Microsoft licensed Xenix to other companies such as IBM, Intel, Tandy, and SCO, though it was never sold directly to end users.

Xenix became particularly popular in the corporate world due to its support for multi-user and networking capabilities. In 1987, Microsoft sold Xenix to SCO, which later ported it to the 32-bit 386 CPU. SCO continued to develop and support the operating system for several years.

Despite its corporate popularity, Xenix never gained mainstream traction. Microsoft reportedly continued to use Xenix internally on Sun workstations and VAX minicomputers as late as 1992, further highlighting its niche role in the company's broader software strategy. In the early 1980s, before the term vaporware became widely known, several high-profile products in the tech industry faced similar fates.

For example, IBM's planned but never-released Future Systems project and various other ambitious software projects contributed to the industry's understanding of vaporware. Other infamous vaporware product include:.