n. Feature-laden software that seduces people into spending inordinate amounts of time tweaking various options for only marginal gains in productivity.
1993
Even without a modem, the computer offers vast possibilities for distraction. With Windows or OS/ 2, you can spend all day changing the color scheme, the fonts, the icons, the look and feel of your screen…. Stephen Manes, a novelist and co-author (with Paul Andrews) of a recent biography of Microsoft mogul Bill Gates, named this kind of program 'fritterware.'
1992 (earliest)
Fritterware
BERKELEY SYSTEMS of Berkeley, California — famous for its After Dark screen saver — has boldly gone and licensed Star Trek's characters, sounds and alien life forms from Paramount Pictures. It is now producing a screen saver based on them.
BERKELEY SYSTEMS of Berkeley, California — famous for its After Dark screen saver — has boldly gone and licensed Star Trek's characters, sounds and alien life forms from Paramount Pictures. It is now producing a screen saver based on them.