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Re: What is the oldest computer that could be used today for real work? [message #411157 is a reply to message #411153] Wed, 22 September 2021 22:51 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Charlie Gibbs is currently offline  Charlie Gibbs
Messages: 5313
Registered: January 2012
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On 2021-09-23, Dan Espen <dan1espen@gmail.com> wrote:

> cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) writes:
>
>> In article <20210918155210.02c1c46cfbb0456d26a4ee94@eircom.net>,
>> Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, 18 Sep 2021 00:49:00 -0600
>>> Grant Taylor <gtaylor@tnetconsulting.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 9/18/21 12:27 AM, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > I suppose the real question is why not recompile them to take
>>>> > advantage of the newer hardware. I know during Y2K work that a lot of
>>>> > instances of lost source code came to light, are people still running
>>>> > binaries for which there is no source ?
>>>>
>>>> Why recompile something just for the sake of recompiling it?
>>>>
>>>> If it's working just fine and is exhibiting no symptoms, why mess with it?
>>>
>>> Yeah I get it, you might be depending on an old undocumented
>>> compiler bug or you might fall foul of a new one so why risk the
>>> new shiny compiler that might get 10% better performance and might
>>> break the application.
>>
>> By that logic, one should never upgrade anything if it can
>> be avoided. An operating system upgrade in particular would
>> be terribly fraught.

s/would be/is/

Especially if you have no mechanism for parallel testing
prior to the cutover.

>> It strikes me how much process we've built predicated on the
>> presumed difficulty of testing and qualifying software for
>> production use.
>
> You only update software when the benefit justifies the cost.

Sadly, people now update software whenever the vendor tells them to
(or does it behind their back).

Last year I heard that a number of 911 sites went down (i.e. no
dial tone) for at least half an hour thanks to a buggy Windows
update that was pushed out to them.

--
/~\ Charlie Gibbs | Life is perverse.
\ / <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> | It can be beautiful -
X I'm really at ac.dekanfrus | but it won't.
/ \ if you read it the right way. | -- Lily Tomlin
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