???? – 2005retired
Alfa Romeo V6 engine
“Alfa's Violin has played its last movement, and the garage is quieter for it.”
“A purple friend who told jokes and took notes — rest easy, buddy”
BonziBuddy was a freeware desktop virtual assistant created by Joe and Jay Bonzi, a chatty purple companion that, upon a user's choice, would share jokes and facts, manage downloads, sing songs, and talk. For a stretch of the early internet, it was the friend who lived inside your computer — cheerful, eager, and always ready with a song. People loved having a buddy on the desktop who actually talked back.
The friendship soured: BonziBuddy was widely described as spyware and adware, and in 2004 Bonzi Software, Inc. discontinued it after facing lawsuits and fines over the software. A final update stripped out the offending features, and the program lingered on Bonzi.com until 2005, with the web portal itself holding on until late 2008. The buddy left behind a complicated legacy — remembered fondly by some, and cited as
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“Alfa's Violin has played its last movement, and the garage is quieter for it.”
“A quiet room for loud ideas, argued in good faith until the lights went out.”
“Three-on-three, fifty-six heroes, one impossible dream team — gone too soon”