Buzz
When we think of today's computing, we can't help but consider how quickly technology evolves. It often feels like we barely unbox a new laptop or smartphone before it starts to feel outdated. Faster speeds, new features, and greater storage seem to emerge almost overnight.
This rapid pace makes it all the more surprising when you pause to examine the tech we use daily, only to realize how much of it has been around for quite a long time. From decades-old operating systems and programming languages to long-established network protocols, some of the technology we rely on has been part of our world for ages—and it shows no signs of disappearing anytime soon. Here are ten examples of vintage computing technology still going strong today.
10. An Operating System from Over 50 Years Ago
“It’s a Unix system! I know this!” says a young Lex as she saves the day in the 1993 movie adaptation of Jurassic Park. This iconic line became one of the earliest memes on the internet and remains a staple; there’s even an entire subreddit dedicated to it. Its appeal is so widespread because many tech professionals can identify with it: If you're familiar with Unix, you can sit down at almost any Unix-like system developed in the past five decades and feel right at home.
Unix was created at AT&T's Bell Labs in 1969. Built from the ground up as a multitasking, multiuser system—meaning it could perform multiple tasks simultaneously for multiple logged-in users—Unix has been praised for its groundbreaking design and unmatched stability. However, what has earned it such a loyal following is the “Unix philosophy,” a set of design principles that promote the use of small, efficient applications that can easily send data between one another.
For many years, AT&T sold Unix licenses, but the core principles of Unix inspired the creation of many Unix-like systems. Today, developers can submit their operating systems for certification as a 'UNIX-Certified Product' under the current owner of the Unix trademark, the Open Group.
In the realm of free and open-source software, Linux distributions are the most widely used operating systems, with Linux classified as a Unix-like system. Linux powers a large portion of the internet's servers and has made significant progress as a desktop OS as well. Given its age, it's astonishing to think about how long Unix and Unix-like systems have been in use—and how relevant they remain today.
9. The Timeless Programming Language Still Powering Banks Today
In today's programming landscape, you'll likely encounter languages like Go, Rust, and C#. But there's one programming language that has been in active use since its creation in 1959, and it still forms the backbone of global finance.
COBOL emerged when a group of businesses and the U.S. government recognized the need for a universal language that could run on the various competing mainframes of the time, featuring a simple English-like syntax. Once completed in late 1959, it quickly gained traction with banks, brokerages, and government agencies such as the IRS.
Despite the tech industry's preference for the 'latest and greatest,' COBOL has remained the dominant language in financial sectors. However, there has been a consistent shortage of COBOL programmers over the years, as younger coders gravitate toward newer languages. Efforts by banks and government bodies to transition away from COBOL have been delayed due to the high costs and complexity involved in phasing out legacy systems. As a result, financial systems continue to run on a language that is now over 60 years old.
8. The Long-Standing and Still Widely Used Coding Tool
While most users write text in word processors, programmers typically use plain text editors. Unlike word processors, which include multiple fonts, text alignment, and other formatting features, plain text is devoid of such embellishments. Since computers read code written in plain text, coders need a robust editor that allows for efficient writing and editing of plain text.
Many of today’s popular plain text editors are actually integrated development environments (IDEs), which help developers organize files in their codebases and track code revisions. Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code is the top IDE today, regularly appearing at the top of developer surveys. Yet, the minimalist but highly capable editor Vim remains a favorite among coders, which is impressive given its age.
Vim was released in 1991, but its origins trace back much further. The Unix program vi (short for 'visual') was introduced in 1979 and itself was a modern iteration of an older tool. A couple of decades later, Vim emerged, originally meaning 'vi imitation' but now recognized as 'vi improved.'
At first glance, Vim might seem intimidating, appearing as a simple text display with no menus or interface. What sets it apart and makes it a favorite among developers, however, is its modes: Insert mode allows text input, while Normal mode lets you execute commands on the text. Normal mode is particularly powerful, enabling quick actions like copying, pasting, and text manipulation—all without lifting your fingers from the keyboard. It’s this combination of speed and efficiency that has kept Vim a popular tool, even though its roots go back to the creation of Unix in 1969.
7. A Steve Jobs Setback, Transformed Into Triumph
In what’s become a legendary business story, Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985 after a confrontation with John Sculley. He then used $12 million of his own money to launch a new company called NeXT. In 1989, NeXT unveiled its first product, the NeXT Cube, a beautifully designed but prohibitively expensive workstation. The high cost made it unaffordable for most universities and researchers—whom Jobs had hoped would be his main customers—and far out of reach for the average home user, leading NeXT to be remembered as one of the most high-profile failures in tech history.
Despite its brief existence, those who bought a NeXT computer praised its operating system, NeXTSTEP. Built on a Unix foundation, NeXTSTEP was powerful, versatile, and remarkably stable compared to other operating systems of its time. When Apple needed an updated OS for its Macintosh computers, it purchased NeXT in 1997 for $429 million. With that acquisition, Apple gained the rights to NeXTSTEP and brought Jobs back into the fold.
Apple's ascent to becoming one of the world's leading companies is widely recognized. However, a key aspect often overlooked is the influence of NeXTSTEP on its success. Initially developed as Mac OS X for desktop and laptop computers, NeXTSTEP also serves as the foundation for iOS on iPhones, iPad OS, and TV OS for Apple TV devices. While the name has evolved over time, the 30+ years of NeXTSTEP’s development have kept it one of the oldest operating systems still actively updated today.
6. A Benchmark for File Downloading and Sharing
If you've ever downloaded files from the internet or shared them, you're likely familiar with ZIP files. Technically, ZIP is a compression format, which reduces the size of a file. Once the ZIP file is received, it can be expanded back to its original size. This not only saves storage space but also speeds up file transfers, reducing the risk of data corruption. Despite the availability of numerous other compression formats, ZIP remains the most enduring, with over four decades of use.
The ZIP file format was created in 1989 by programmer Phil Katz at his company, PKware. It predates the modern internet and emerged when the cost of storage was incredibly high. During that era, ZIP was just one of several compression tools, but its simplicity and broad adoption across various platforms helped it rise to become the standard for file compression.
A key factor in the longevity of ZIP is its versatility in general file handling. For example, Microsoft's default Office file formats, such as DOCX for Word and XLSX for Excel, are actually ZIP files in disguise. This allows Microsoft to bundle multiple files into one, ensuring compatibility with other office software applications.
5. The Monumental Computers of the Past
When we think about the evolution of computers, it's common to imagine the massive mainframes that once occupied entire rooms, eventually shrinking down to desktop machines and portable devices. However, the reality is that mainframes are still very much in use today, playing vital roles in the operations of businesses across the globe. A 2021 survey revealed that 67 of the Fortune 100 companies continue to rely on mainframes.
The term 'mainframe' originates from the large cabinets that house the CPU and main memory—what we now call the 'main frame.' Although the size and basic structure of modern mainframes resemble those from the mid-20th century, their computational power has certainly evolved. What remains consistent is their unparalleled ability to process vast amounts of transactions per second, a hallmark of mainframe technology.
In today’s technological ecosystem, mainframes are also adapting and evolving. Along with maintaining legacy systems like COBOL applications, they now serve as the foundation for cloud computing and are capable of running virtual machines concurrently. Far from being obsolete, mainframes are indispensable to our current tech-driven world.
4. The Peripheral That Refuses to Disappear
It’s nearly impossible to picture modern computing without a keyboard, whether for typing or issuing commands to a computer. Likewise, the computer mouse has firmly established its place as an enduring fixture in the computing world.
The concept of the mouse was first introduced in 1964 by Douglas Engelbart, the Director of the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. However, the mouse truly entered mainstream consciousness in 1979, when Steve Jobs and a group of Apple engineers visited the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
During this visit, Jobs was introduced to computers featuring icons, windows, a mouse, and other technologies developed at PARC. Realizing (rightly so) that this represented the future of personal computing, Jobs brought this knowledge back to Apple. By 1983, Apple released its first computer with a mouse, the Lisa, followed by the Macintosh in 1984.
Since then, the mouse has become an indispensable component of personal computing. Not bad for a device designed in the 1960s, which, despite some technical enhancements and ergonomic improvements, remains largely unchanged in the 21st century.
3. Email Has Been Around as Long as Networked Computing
Even though many of us now dread checking our email inboxes, which are often filled with spam, promotional content, and more tasks to tackle, email remains a vital part of our daily computing lives. If you're feeling less than enthusiastic about email today, try to imagine the excitement it must have sparked in its early days, when sending a message between computers seemed like something straight out of a futuristic story.
Unsurprisingly, ARPANET was the network that enabled the first-ever email exchange. On October 29, 1969, UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and his student, programmer Charley Kline, attempted to send a message over ARPANET to another programmer, Bill Duvall, at the Stanford Research Institute. The message they tried to send? The word 'login.' Unfortunately, the system crashed right after the 'o' was typed!
Fortunately, the message was successfully transmitted about an hour later, marking the birth of email. Whether that was a positive development is up to individual interpretation, but given email's enduring presence and the billions of messages exchanged since 1969, it's clear that one of the oldest computer technologies continues to play a central role in our daily lives.
2. The Internet Protocol Predates the World Wide Web
You've likely encountered your computer's TCP/IP settings at some point, but what do they actually mean? In short, it's a complex system best handled by skilled network engineers. From a high-level perspective, TCP (Transmission Control Program) governs the movement of data over the internet, while the Internet Protocol establishes your online address and determines how data reaches you. What's particularly fascinating is that these protocols were developed long before the public internet became widespread in the 1990s.
The foundation of the public internet was laid by ARPANET, developed by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) within the United States Department of Defense. TCP/IP, which would become the backbone of the internet, was refined on ARPANET throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Robert E. Kahn and Vinton Cerf are recognized as the key figures behind these protocols. Initially, TCP replaced previous protocols in 1974, but Kahn and Cerf soon realized that in order for the network to grow, the addressing and routing functions needed to be separated into a distinct protocol. This led to the creation of the Internet Protocol in 1983, solidifying the TCP/IP structure we know today.
Without the foundational work on ARPANET, the public internet of the 1990s would not have been possible. Although the contributions of Kahn and Cerf might seem outdated by today's standards, their work has proven to be durable enough to support the vast global network that continues to grow and connect us all.
1. The Origins of Modern Networking Are Older Than You Think
Another significant breakthrough that took place at Xerox PARC—one that Steve Jobs admitted he missed during his 1979 visit—was the concept of connecting personal computers into a network, allowing them to share files and resources such as networked printers. This idea, which we now take for granted, was made possible thanks to Ethernet, the very technology that fueled the global internet we rely on today.
Ethernet, invented by Bob Metcalfe in 1973 at Xerox PARC, became the standard for wired network connections. It was patented in 1975 and later became an open standard. While other competing technologies, such as Token Ring, FDDI, and Apple’s LocalTalk, once challenged Ethernet’s dominance, Ethernet has remained the unquestioned standard for network connectivity over the last five decades.
What about WiFi, though? It was essentially developed as a wireless version of Ethernet, and its formal standard is actually known as 'wireless Ethernet 802.11.' So while Ethernet has evolved, becoming faster and wire-free over the years, it remains fundamentally the same concept that Bob Metcalfe introduced in the 1970s.
