I didn't see this anywhere in the comments, so here it is.
I think it's really cool that some of these machines are still running just fine after 25-50+ years, and while I agree with the sentiment, it really scares me as a user, and would even more if I were a business owner. I couldn't even make it past the first section.
We spend all this time talking about data portability, using open, non-proprietary formats, and redundant backups. A fire could wipe out everything, as it would be a huge undertaking to either reproduce a copy for offsite archival (which is already likely the case). What happens when the machine breaks beyond repair and a replacement can't be found?
I'm all for repurposing old hardware, extending the useful life of machinery and not upgrading just because. But modern computing systems have huge advantages including physical data size, redundancy and search, among others. Not to mention that even if the Sparkles decided to move to a modern system, the data would have to be transferred manually.
They should have just called the article "Old Computers in use at companies where managment is to stupid to see how much money they are wasting and how much risk they are introducing"
The chemical company in Texas is a prime example: "They use it because its a known entity."
I would assume that this is the single reason outdated systems continue to exist. People who are using the old systems and feel confident with them. If you want, you can find for any legacy system a person who would be willing to take the risk to replace it. But that would also mean losing control for the existing maintainers...
I think it's really cool that some of these machines are still running just fine after 25-50+ years, and while I agree with the sentiment, it really scares me as a user, and would even more if I were a business owner. I couldn't even make it past the first section.
We spend all this time talking about data portability, using open, non-proprietary formats, and redundant backups. A fire could wipe out everything, as it would be a huge undertaking to either reproduce a copy for offsite archival (which is already likely the case). What happens when the machine breaks beyond repair and a replacement can't be found?
I'm all for repurposing old hardware, extending the useful life of machinery and not upgrading just because. But modern computing systems have huge advantages including physical data size, redundancy and search, among others. Not to mention that even if the Sparkles decided to move to a modern system, the data would have to be transferred manually.