"Vaporware" was coined by a Microsoft engineer in 1982 to describe the company's Xenix operating system and first appeared in print in a newsletter by entrepreneur Esther Dyson in 1983. It became popular among writers in the industry as a way to describe products they felt took too long to be released. "InfoWorld" magazine editor Stewart Alsop helped popularize it by lampooning Bill Gates with a "Golden Vaporware" award for the late release of his company's first version of Windows in 1985.