The derogatory computer jargon term shovelware refers to software noted more for the quantity of what is included than for the quality or usefulness. The metaphor implies that the creators chose the content material indiscriminately, as if with a shovel, rather than hand-picking quality works. (arcane computer acronym, terminology or technology) (Computer jargon must be distinguished from hacker slang, which is the language of a certain subculture of people involved with computers. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...

The term "shovelware" is coined with semantic analogy to phrases like shareware and freeware, which describe methods of software distribution. Look up shareware in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

"Shovelware" CD-ROMs

Although poor-quality collections existed at least as far back as the BBS era, the term "shovelware" became commonly used in the early 1990s to describe early CD-ROMs such as collections of shareware or public domain software. The relatively large capacity of CD-ROMs - equivalent at to around 450-700 floppy disks, the former distribution method of choice - encouraged producers to fill them by including as much existing content as possible, often without regard to the quality of the material. Software reviewers, displeased with huge collections of inconsistent quality, dubbed this practice "shovelware".

The practice of shovelware has largely decreased due to the relatively limited capacity of removable media in modern computers compared to the file size of software.

Shovelware in the Amiga community

CD-ROM based games had little success in the Amiga market, since Commodore's CD-based hardware sold poorly and most Amiga computers couldn't make practical use of the extra space for games due to other hardware constraints. However, a thriving PD community led some PD resellers to release compilation CDs, such as Hottest 4 and 17-Bit's The Fifth Dimension, collecting together numerous individual floppy disks on single CDs. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... Team 17 is a video game company, which grew from 17Bit Software, an Amiga PD/Demo user-group in the late 80s/. Now based in Ossett, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. ...

While these CDs represented good value for money, providing as many as perhaps five hundred PD disks on one CD, many such CDs were criticized as including large amounts of material without taking the time to check individual disks for quality before inclusion; rather, the inclusiveness of the material was often a selling point. In some cases, the CDs would be supplied with only a limited user interface, or sometimes none at all.

However, not all compilation CDs were necessarily considered "shovelware". CU Amiga's cover CDs were regularly quite full, but the editors were considered to be selective in their choices for inclusion. The Aminet archive CDs, while non-selective in their inclusion, were generally not referred to as shovelware, perhaps since they were sufficiently well-categorized and frequently included quality material. The Fred Fish archive CD was likewise generally not considered shovelware, since it merely archived an existing series of disks which themselves contained hand-picked material. Aminet is the worlds largest archive of Amiga related software and files. ...

Modern usage

The term "shovelware" has more recently been used in a more general sense by video game reviewers to indicate any product of disappointingly low quality due to a lack of time and effort by the developers. For example, Adam Sessler of X-Play described the Playstation 3 launch game Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire as "shovelware of the highest order", which took little advantage of the new system's capabilities and was rushed out in order for it to be a launch title [1]. Adam Donovan Sessler (born August 29, 1973 in Berkeley, California [1]) is co-host and senior segment producer of the G4 (formerly TechTV) television program X-Play (formerly Gamespot TV and Extended Play) with Morgan Webb. ... X-Play logo X-Play (previously Gamespot TV and Extended Play) is a video game review television show hosted by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb. ... PlayStation 3 , trademarked PLAYSTATION®3,[7] commonly abbreviated PS3) is Sony Computer Entertainments third video game console. ... Super Mario Brothers, a launch title for the NES A launch title is a video game that has been made available to consumers synchronously with its respective video game console, meaning they are the only available games at the time of the consoles launch. ...

Related to shovelware is bloatware, a negative term describing a program which has included too many features at the cost of usability, straightforwardness and use of system resources. Software bloat is a derogatory term used to describe the tendency of newer computer programs to use larger amounts of disk space, more CPU power and/or more RAM memory than older programs. ...

Shovelware also is the term given to media content (often from a newspaper, TV or radio station) that is hastily thrown onto a corresponding Web site with little regard to the layout or design.^{[citation needed]}

Media format conversion

Shovelware is often used to refer to conversions from one media to another, also known as "porting," in the way floppy disc collections were aggregated onto CD-ROMs. When any new medium is born, there is a perceived opportunity by people with more IP than imagination to hastily shove their old content down the new pipe. Today there is potential for similar shovelware in converting PC websites into mobile websites with little thought to optimizing for the new platform. Another example is the Nintendo Wii, which, upon release, faced many previous-generation games that had been converted to use the pointing mechanism. In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... The Wii (pronounced as the pronoun we, IPA: ) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. ...

Some new platforms in fact actively encourage shovelware, as a way to "cross the chasm" until optimized new content is created. For example, Apple emphasized how existing PC sites could be viewed on its newly released iPhone. Despite Apple's current third-party developer blocks, over time one can expect new original iPhone content.

Perhaps the radio shows that were recorded with static actors as the first TV shows, could be regarded as the first examples of shovelware. But there will be many more to come, as media owners seek to wring residuals out of irrelevant content, and consumers trust known brands over new ideas.

External links

• cd.textfiles.com