Oldies but goodies

["James W. Kilgore" <eMail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Larry,

I, too, have run into similar situations.

What you have described is the factual point that IBM has not shouted to
the roof tops.  And for a very good reason.  One makes money through new
sales.  They fail to sell this story.  Because they don't want it told.

IBM (not to pick on them, it could be anyone) created a machine that you
have described that has been a solid multi-user system for 19 years! 
And I'm sure that when you visited them it was still working and they
were happy with it.  They had an incredible ROI!

Here's a little homework, tomorrow take a look around and see if you can
spot a server or desktop machine that is -still- doing it's job once it
has reached voting age.  Let's take some stats on brand name.  You've
got a PDPII that's been humming right along for 25 years or a Compaq
portable XT (about the size and weight of a portable sewing machine)
with a 5250 emulation card in it that you lug around with you to every
client, tell us about it. ;-)

1982 ... DOS 1.0 ... 8mhz processors ...  Any other stories of machines
still doing their job that are old enough to get a drivers license?


Larry Bolhuis wrote:
> 
> > Anyone interested in purchasing a slightly used 5364 ??
> 
> I went to see a customer just Yesterday who is still running a 5362,
> with a 9332-200 external disk and a 6157 tape drive (all piled on top of
> each other of course). Purchased in 1982, still on maintenance (though
> not IBM), still heating the computer room.  They want the code ported to
> an AS/400 and wonder if a little 270 will give them a performance boost.
> Um, Yah I think so.
> 
> Seems like the main point here is whether such customers would PAY to
> keep support for these old machines and their software. There comes a
> point where a vendor simply could not get enough revenue to cover the
> costs. At that point the customers wanting to stay the course go on
> alone. Those too chicken, move up to a supported platform/release.  As I
> see it: economics 101.
>
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