Local networks based on the Open Systems Interconnection model are still little more than 'slideware,' but the leading network operating system vendors are promising to deliver real products as early as next year.
—Susan Breidenbach, "LAN vendors devise plans to support OSI," Network World, June 19, 1989
Slideware is one of those slippery terms whose origin seems to drift back in time the more you research it. It finally settled in 1989, as shown by the earliest citation.
The more popular and more venerable synonym for
slideware is
vaporware (or
vapourware for those loyal to the Commonwealth). I managed to trace this term back to 1984:
'Companies are announcing but not delivering products,' Black stated. 'We have hardware [and] software, and now we have vaporware that disappears when you try to find it.'
—Paul Korzeniowski, "Micro-mainframe links not yet seen satisfying users," Computerworld, April 9, 1984
