Obsolete (pronounced ob-suh-leet)
(1) No
longer in general use; fallen into disuse; that is no longer practiced or used,
out of date, gone out of use, of a discarded type; outmoded.
(2) Of
a linguistic form, no longer in use, especially if out of use for at least the
past century.
(3) Effaced
by wearing down or away (rare).
(4) In
biology, imperfectly developed or rudimentary in comparison with the
corresponding character in other individuals, as of a different sex or of a
related species; of parts or organs, vestigial; rudimentary.
(5) To
make obsolete by replacing with something newer or better; to antiquate (rare).
1570–1580: From the Latin obsolētus (grown old; worn out), past
participle of obsolēscere (to fall
into disuse, be forgotten about, become tarnished), the construct assumed to be
ob- (opposite to) (from the Latin ob- (facing), a combining prefix found
in verbs of Latin origin) + sol(ēre) (to be used to; to be accustomed
to) + -ēscere (–esce) (the inchoative suffix, a form of -ēscō (I become)). It was
used to form verbs from nouns, following the pattern of verbs derived from
Latin verbs ending in –ēscō). Obsoletely is an adverb, obsoleteness is a
noun and the verbs (used with object), are obsoleted & obsoleting; Although
it does exist, except when it’s essential to covey a technical distinction, the
noun obsoleteness is hardly ever used, obsolescence standing as the noun form
for both obsolete and obsolescent. The
verb obsolesce (fall into disuse, grow obsolete) dates from 1801 and is as rare
now as it was then.
Although not always exactly synonymous, in
general use, archaic and obsolete are often used interchangeably. However, dictionaries maintain a distinction:
words (and meanings) not in widespread use since English began to assume its
recognizably modern form in the mid-1700s, are labeled “obsolete”. Words and meanings which, while from Modern
English, have long fallen from use are labeled “archaic” and those now seen
only very infrequently (and then in often in specialized, technical
applications), are labeled “rare”.
Obsolescent (promounced ob-suh-les-uhnt)
(1)
Becoming obsolete; passing out of use (as a word or meaning).
(2)
Becoming outdated or outmoded, as applied to machinery, weapons systems,
electronics, legislation etc.
(3) In biology,
gradually disappearing or imperfectly developed, as vestigial organs.
1745–1755:
From the Latin obsolēscentum, from obsolēscēns, present participle of obsolēscere (to fall into disuse); the third-person
plural future active indicative of obsolēscō
(degrade, soil, sully, stain, defile). Obsolescently
is an adverb and obsolescence a noun. Because
things that are obsolescent are becoming obsolete, the sometimes heard phrase “becoming
obsolescent” is redundant. The sense "state
or process of gradually falling into disuse; becoming obsolete" entered
general use in 1809 and although most associated with critiques by certain
economists in the 1950s, the phrase “planned obsolescence was coined” was
coined in 1932, the 1950s use a revival.
Things
that are obsolete are those no longer in general use because (1) they have been
replaced, (2) the activity for which they were designed is no longer
undertaken. Thing that are considered obsolescent
are things still to some extent in use but are for whatever combination of
reasons, are tending towards becoming obsolete.
in fading from general use and soon to become obsolete. For example, the
Windows XP operating system (released in 2001) is not obsolete because some still use it, but it is obsolescent because, presumably it will in the years ahead fall from use.
Ex-Royal
Air Force (RAF) Hawker Hunter in Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) livery; between 1963-2002
twenty-six Hunters were at different times operated by the AFZ. Declared obsolete as an interceptor by the
RAF in 1963, some Hunters were re-deployed to tactical reconnaissance,
ground-attack and close air support roles before being retired from front-line
service in 1970. Some were retained as
trainers while many were sold to foreign air forces including India, Pakistan
and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe since 1980).
Despite the apparent simplicity of the
definition, in use, obsolescent is highly nuanced and much influenced by
context. It’s long been a favorite word
in senior military circles; although notorious hoarders, generals and admirals
are usually anxious to label equipment as obsolescent if there’s a whiff of hope
the money might to forthcoming to replace it with something new. One often unexplored aspect of the
international arms trade is that of used equipment, often declared obsolescent
by the military in one state and purchased by that of another, a transaction
often useful to both parties. The threat
profile against which a military prepares varies between nations and equipment
which genuinely has been rendered obsolescent for one country may be a valuable
addition to the matériel of others and go on enjoy an operational life of
decades. Well into the twentieth-first century, WWII & Cold War-era aircraft, warships, tanks and other weapon-systems declared obsolescent
and on-sold (and in some cases given as foreign aid or specific military
support) by big-budget militaries remain a prominent part of the inventories of
many smaller nations. That’s one
context, another hinges on the specific-tasking of materiel; an aircraft declared
obsolescent as a bomber could go on long to fulfil a valuable role as in
transport or tug.
In
software, obsolescence is so vague a concept the conventional definition really
isn’t helpful. Many software users suffer
severe cases of versionitis (a syndrome in which they suffer a sometimes
visceral reaction to using anything but the latest version of something) so
obsolescence to them seems an almost constant curse. The condition tends gradually to diminish in
severity and in many cases the symptoms actually invert: after sufficient
ghastly experiences with new versions, versionitis begins instead to manifest
as a morbid fear of every upgrading anything.
Around the planet, obsolescent and obsolete software has for decades
proliferated and there’s little doubt this will continue, the Y2K bug which
prompted much rectification work on the ancient code riddling the world of the
main-frames and other places unlikely to be the last great panic (one is said
to be next due in 2029). The manufacturers
too have layers to their declaration of the obsolete. In 2001, Microsoft advised all legacy
versions of MS-DOS (the brutish and now forty year old file-loader) were
obsolete but, with a change of release number, still offer what's functionally the same MS-DOS for anyone needing a small operating system with minimal demands on memory size & CPU specification, mostly those who use embedded controllers, a real
attraction being the ability easily to address just about any compatible
hardware, a convenience more modern OSs have long restricted. DOS does still have attractions for many, the long-ago derided 640 kb actually a generous memory space for many of the internal processes of machines and it's an operating system with no known bugs.
XTree’s
original default color scheme; things were different in the 1980s.
Also,
obsolescent, obsolete or not, sometimes the old ways are the best. In 1985, Underware Sytems (later the now
defunct Executive Systems (EIS)) released a product called XTree, the first
commercially available software which provided users a visual depiction of the
file system, arranged using a root-branch tree metaphor. Within that display, it was possible to do
most file-handling such as copying, moving, re-naming, deleting and so on. Version 1.0 was issued as a single, 35 kb
executable file, supplied usually on a 5.25" floppy diskette and although
it didn’t do anything which couldn’t (eventually) be achieved using just DOS, XTree made it easy
and fast; reviewers, never the most easily impressed bunch, were effusive in
their praise. Millions agreed and bought
the product which went through a number of upgrades until by 1993, XTreeGold
3.0 had grown to a feature-packed three megabytes but, and it was a crucial
part of the charm, the user interface didn’t change and anyone migrating from
v1 to v3 could carry on as before, using or ignoring the new functions as they
choose.
However,
with the release in 1990 of Microsoft’s Windows 3.0, the universe shifted and
while it was still an unstable environment, it was obvious things would improve
and EIS, now called the XTree Company, devoted huge resources to producing a
Windows version of their eponymous product, making the crucial decision that
when adopting the Windows-style graphical user interface (GUI), the XTree keyboard
shortcuts would be abandoned. This mean the user interface was something that looked not greatly
different to the Windows in-built file manager and bore no resemblance to the even then quirky but marvelously lucid one which had served so well. XTree for Windows was a critical and
financial disaster and in 1993 the company was sold to rival Central Point
Software, themselves soon to have their own problems, swallowed a year
later by Symantec which, in a series of strategic acquisitions, soon assumed an
almost hegemonic control of the market for Windows utilities. Elements of XTree were interpolated into
other Symantec products but as a separate line, it was allowed to die. In 1998, Symantec officially deleted the
product but the announcement was barely noted by the millions of users who
continued to use the text-based XTree which ran happily under newer
versions of Windows although, being a real-time program and thus living in
a small memory space, as disks grew and file counts rose, walls were sometimes
hit, some work-arounds possible but kludgy. The attraction of the unique XTree
was however undiminished and an independent developer built ZTree, using the
classic interface but coded to run on both IBM’s OS/2 and the later flavors of
Windows. Without the constraints of the
old real-time memory architecture, ZTree could handle long file and directory
names, megalomaniacs now able to log an unlimited number of disks and files, all while using the same,
lightning-fast interface. The idea
spread to UNIX where ytree, XTC, linuXtree and (most notably), UnixTree were
made available.
ZTree,
for those who can remember how things used to be done.
ZTree
remains a brute-force favorite for many techs.
Most don’t often need to do those tasks at which it excels but, when
those big-scale needs arise, as a file handler, ZTree still can do what nothing
else can. It’ll also do what’s now
small-scale stuff; anyone still running XTree 1.0 under MS-DOS 2.11 on their
8088 could walk to some multi-core 64-bit monster with 64 GB RAM running
Windows 11 and happily use ZTree. ZTree
is one of the industry’s longest-running user interfaces.
The
Centennial Light, Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Livermore, California. Illuminated almost continuously since 1901,
it’s said to be the world's longest-lasting light bulb. The light bulb business became associated
with the idea of planned obsolescence after the revelation of the existence of
a cartel of manufacturers which had conspired to more than halve the service
life of bulbs in order to stimulate sales.
As early as 1924, executives in US
industry had been discussing the idea of integrating planned obsolescence into
their systems of production and distribution although it was then referred to with
other phrases. The idea essentially was
that in the industrial age, modern mercantile capitalism was so efficient in
its ability to produce goods that it would tend to over-produce, beyond the
ability to stimulate demand. The result
would be a glut, a collapse in prices and a recession or depression which affected
the whole society, a contributing factor to what even then was known as the
boom & bust economy. One approach
was that of the planned economy whereby government would regulate production
and maintain employment and wages at the levels required to maintain some
degree of equilibrium between supply and demand but such socialistic notions
were anathematic to industrialists.
Their preference was to reduce the lifespan of goods to the point which
matched the productive capacity and product-cycles of industry, thereby
ensuring a constant churn. Then, as now,
there were those for and against, the salesmen delighted, the engineers
appalled.
The
actual phrase seems first to have been used in the pamphlet Ending the Depression Through Planned
Obsolescence, published in 1932 by US real estate broker (and confessed
Freemason) Bernard London (b circa 1873) but it wasn’t popularized until the
1950s. Then, it began as a casual description of the techniques used in advertising
to stimulate demand and thus without the negative connotations which would
attach when it became part of the critique of materialism,
consumerism and the consequential environmental destruction. There had been earlier ideas about the need
for a hyper-consumptive culture to service a system
designed inherently to increase production and thus create endless economic
growth: one post-war industrialist noted the way to “avoid gluts was to create
a nation of gluttons” and exporting this model underlies the early
US enthusiasm for globalism. As some of
the implications of that became apparent, globalization clearly not the Americanization promised, enthusiasm became more
restrained.
Betamax and VHS: from dominant to obsolescent to obsolete;
the DVD may follow.
Although the trend began in the United States
in the late 1950s, it was in the 1970s that the churn rate in consumer
electronics began to accelerate, something accounted for partly by the reducing
costs as mass-production in the Far East ramped up but also the increasing
rapidity with which technologies came and went.
The classic example of the era was the so-called videotape format war which
began in the mid 1970s after the Betamax (usually clipped to Beta) and Video
Home System (VHS) formats were introduced with a year of each other. Both systems were systems by which analog
recordings of video and audio content cold be distributed on magnetic tapes which
loaded into players with a cassette (the players, regardless of format soon known
universally as video cassette recorders (VCR).
The nerds soon pronounced Betamax the superior format because of superior
quality of playback and commercial operators agreed with it quickly adopted as
the default standard in television studios.
Consumers however came to prefer VHS because, on most of the screens on
which most played their tapes, the difference between the two was marginal and
the VHS format permitted longer recording times (an important thing in the era)
and the hardware was soon available at sometimes half the cost of Betamax
units.
It was essentially the same story
which unfolded a generation later in the bus and operating systems wars; the early
advantages of OS/2 over Windows and Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) over
ISA/EISA both real and understood but few were prepared to pay the steep
additional cost for advantages which seemed so slight and at the same time
brought problems of their own. Quite
when Betamax became obsolescent varied between markets but except for a handful
of specialists, by the late 1980s it was obsolete and the flow of new content
had almost evaporated. VHS prevailed but
its dominance was short-lived, the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) released in
1997 which within half a decade was the preferred format throughout the Western
world although in some other markets, the thriving secondary market suggests even
today the use of VCRs is not uncommon. DVD
sales though peaked in 2006 and have since dropped by some 80%, their
market-share cannibalized not by the newer Blu-Ray format (which never achieved
critical mass) but by the various methods (downloads & streaming) which
meant many users were able wholly to abandon removable media. Despite that, the industry seems still to
think the DVD has a niche and it may for some time resist obsolescence because demand
still exists for content on a physical object at a level it remains profitable
to service. Opinions differ about the
long-term. History suggests that as the “DVD
generation” dies off, the format will fade away as those used to entirely
weightless content available any time, in any place won’t want the hassle but,
as the unexpected revival of vinyl records as a lucrative niche proved,
obsolete technology can have its own charm which is why a small industry now
exists to retro-fit manual gearboxes into modern Ferraris, replacing
technically superior automatic transmissions.
