Allume Systems was a

software developer Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development inv ...

, founded in 1988 by David Schargel and Jonathan Kahn in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

as Aladdin Systems to develop, publish and distribute

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

for

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tech ...

s. Aladdin Systems was incorporated in January 1989. In April 2004, the company was acquired by PC software publisher International Microcomputer Software Inc. (IMSI). A few months later in July, the company was forced to change its name from Aladdin Systems as part of a settlement of a

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from oth ...

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

with

Aladdin Knowledge Systems Aladdin Knowledge Systems (formerly and ) was a company that produced software for digital rights management and Internet security. The company was acquired by Safenet Inc, in 2009. Its corporate headquarters are located in Belcamp, MD. Histor ...

. In 2005, Allume Systems was acquired by

Smith Micro Software Smith Micro Software, Inc., founded in 1982 by William W. Smith, Jr., is a developer and marketer of both enterprise and consumer-level software and services. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Smith Micro maintains multiple domestic and ...

from IMSI.

Products

As Aladdin Systems, they originally developed exclusively for

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

, focusing on data compression and management utilities, such as the StuffIt family of compression utilities and the ''StuffIt InstallerMaker'' delivery suite, the ''ShrinkWrap'' disk image utility, and its ''Spring Cleaning'' system optimization utility. As Aladdin Systems, the company purchased the ''ShrinkWrap'' disk image utility from Macintosh shareware developer Chad Magendanz in 1996. As early as 1995, Allume began to release some elements of StuffIt to

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

while not releasing the full ''StuffIt for Windows'' until 2000. StuffIt was later ported to both

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

and Solaris in 2001. Under Smith Micro, both Unix products have since been discontinued. By this time, Allume began to publish or distribute a full line of

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, ...

imaging Imaging is the representation or reproduction of an object's form; especially a visual representation (i.e., the formation of an image). Imaging technology is the application of materials and methods to create, preserve, or duplicate images. ...

internet security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules ...

, and utility software. In response to the success of the popular

marine aquarium A marine aquarium is an aquarium that keeps marine plants and animals in a contained environment. Marine aquaria are further subdivided by hobbyists into fish only (FO), fish only with live rock (FOWLR), and reef aquaria. Fish only tanks ofte ...

fishtank simulator, they have also released their own line of fish sims known as Aquazone, which is not affiliated with the discontinued fish tank

computer simulation Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...

from 9003.inc by the same name. Smith Micro's latest versions of StuffIt are StuffIt Deluxe 2010 for Windows and StuffIt Deluxe 16 for Mac.

References

External links

Smith Micro Software
Watsonville, California Companies based in Santa Cruz County, California Software companies established in 1988 2005 mergers and acquisitions Defunct software companies of the United States {{US-software-company-stub