Interesting historical and perspective thought....  You are right about programs getting a start and with a blink, they are gone...   Also, the changing of the guard ( O.S.)... also effected the perverbial new Idea someone came up with...  Microsoft had and still does have their sights on some future world of instant communication and access... under their flag OS..ofcourse...  and keep aborting any and all new Ideas that seem to want to sprout around their OS like weeds...  I recall most of the programs you wrote about.. 

Yet, Bryce never seem to have been affected by the changing guard....  Perhaps the programer new something all the others did not know...     now, there's a question worth $100.00..

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------