There are some terms (possibly jargon) that I've been muddling over lately. I can't find a definition in any of the usual dictionaries I visit, so I'm bringing the question to LQ.

The two terms are "abandonware" and "legacy software".

As I understand it, Abandonware is what software becomes when the person who owns the copyright stops supporting or caring about it. For example a Win3.1 card game made by some high school student.


As I understand it, Legacy Software is software from the pre-Win98 era.

Am I right or am I wrong about these definitions?

Legacy software is:

1. another defintion of abandonware

2. A marketing phrase to get people to buy into the latest and greatest

3. Software written a while ago, but still in daily use, since theres nothing to replace it, and starting from scratch is more work than maintaining it.

4. You've upgraded most of your systems, but still need to keep one around to run a legacy app that isn't available on your new system, or you have to have some funky workaround to let it run on your new system.

Thats some of the ones I know. I always treat the term legacy software with suspicion.

I can understand why if its used to mean abandonware.

I made a wise-crack about having some "legacy software", and the guy I was talking to responded "Isn't it illegal to use or get legacy software?".

My reply, "I legally purchased it in 1993. It should be legal.", confused him pretty good.

We clearly didn't mean the same thing when refering to "legacy software".

Hence this topic.

Illegal, what was he stoned? He must of misheard you, I hope...

I treat it with suspicion not because the term is used to mean abandonware, but because of the marketing spin thats applied to the term. Some people after all like to call some older *nix software legacy.

i.e. tar, which is really an tape archive program. Its fully maintained and is something most people on *nix use a lot, but I have heard some people refer to tar as Legacy Software and we should all use <insert latest compression program name here>.

If you ask me, "legacy software" is any software that is used in a company's Production environment, but only because replacing it would be cost-prohibitive. It's still in use because it performs at least one critical job for the company, and it has become so entrenched in the company's operations that replacing it just is not feasible. As a result, it continues to get used, in spite of the fact that there may be better alternatives out there.

As an analogy, imagine that you were an architect, and you designed a 15 story building with 2 elevators for a small but growing company. For a good number of years, those elevators were perfectly adequate, but eventually, the company gets to such a size that you are asked to add another 10 stories onto the existing building. Now, given the number of people that would be working in the building, plus the new height of the building, you might know that ideally, the building really ought to have 4 sets of elevators, rather than just two. The problem though is that you can't just add in another couple of elevator shafts to a standing building, and so all you really can do is to extend the existing 2 elevators up to the 25th floor.

That would be a legacy system - it performs a vital function for the company for which there really aren't any viable substitutes, but it is old and/or obsolete, and if you had to start from scratch, you'd do things a different way. (leonscape's third comment sums it up very nicely.)

I'll admit that my analogy might not be the greatest, but hopefully it illustrates the point. As a final comment, I would say that there are no specific dates that would cause a system to be categorized as "legacy" or not. It's kind of a subjective call, and depends on the application: perhaps one particular system that was originally designed 30 years ago is still as useful and important as it was when it was originally rolled out, while another system that was rolled out only 2 years ago may be considered total legacy. Examples: fundamentally, the software for ATM machines is basically unchanged since the ATM machines were first launched. You slide in your card, type in a 4 digit PIN, select the amount to withdraw from a particular account, take the money and you're done. The basic code really hasn't changed in decades, but it probably wouldn't be considered as a legacy system. Alternatively, suppose a company bought new software in 2003 to help manage their telephone system. It may only be 2 years old, but with all the different options out there now for telecommunications services, it may be that the only reason the company is still using it is because they're still paying for it. That's a legacy system for sure.

Overall, I would say that deciding whether a given system is "legacy" or not really depends on whether it's still being used and will continue to be used, in spite of the existence of better alternatives. If the answer is Yes, then it's legacy. Just my 2 cents. -- J.W.

I'm thinking I should just say I have tons of Win3.1 - Win95 software.

Pretty ancient stuff, but appearently not "legacy software".

My definitions...

Legacy software - Software created and optimized for use on operating systems that are no longer considered current.

Abandonware - Software which has been abandoned by it's creator. It is no longer developed or maintained, brings in no revenue stream, and it's creator has usually indicated that they have no further interest in it.