Apple has pulled the plug on AppleWorks relegating it to the realms of abandonware. As solid as this program was during the height of its run, it has reached the end of its software life-cycle and will no longer be supported by the company when iWork 08 comes out.

In the spirit of the moment, let's take a short look at the long and illustrious life of the program. Originally written by Robert Lissner, the software suite was released way back 1984. It was designed for use by both the Apple and the Apple II computers.

The company followed this up with AppleWorks 2.0 in 1986. The year after that, this project was turned over to Apple's then new software subsidiary Claris. They went to work immediately, releasing version 3.0 in 1989.

The next update wouldn't happen until 1993, when AppleWorks 4.0 was released and was followed by AppleWorks 5.0 the year after. The last iterations of the program resemble what most would expect from an office application suite with a word processor, a drawing program, a painting program, a spreadsheet, a database program, and even a terminal program for communications.

While it might be painful for the old school Mac user to let this program go, the iWork 08 looks to be a good successor. From all indications, it will live up and surpass the venerable old program in terms of functionality and ease.