Still going er strong?

[Villan]

Still booting after all these years: The people stuck using ancient Windows computers​

Still booting after all these years: The people stuck using ancient Windows computers

As technology marches on, some people get trapped using decades-old software and devices. Here's a look inside the strange, stubborn world of obsolete Windows machines.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[jp7152]

If hardware has already lasted a few years it just seems to solder on. Always surprises me really. There was an era of bad capacitors but aside from that it's amazing what a long life pc hardware can have. I wonder if it will be the same with a 5090 in 20 plus years?

 

[Vinno]

If hardware has already lasted a few years it just seems to solder on. Always surprises me really. There was an era of bad capacitors but aside from that it's amazing what a long life pc hardware can have. I wonder if it will be the same with a 5090 in 20 plus years?

I really doubt it, sadly.

 

[KraniX]

I'm still running a pretty old PC, was an i5 2500k until last year when I picked up a 3570 for a tenner, still using the same old Gigabyte motherboard.

I had a NUC for a while but that died so I had to dust off the old desktop and its still running fine. Although will need to consider what to do as Win 10 support ends soon, thinking Ubuntu.

 

[something daft already!!]

If hardware has already lasted a few years it just seems to solder on. Always surprises me really. There was an era of bad capacitors but aside from that it's amazing what a long life pc hardware can have. I wonder if it will be the same with a 5090 in 20 plus years?

I'd give the melting connector blocks a couple of weeks at best.

 

[jcb33]

Reminds me of this article from last year.

A bakery in the US uses a 1982 Commodore 64 as a cash register

Just the other day, the internet saw a new post showing photos of Commodore 64 computers being used in a modern bakery as cash registers.

itc.ua

It's great when you can spot old tech in the wild.

 

[Rocky-Roader]

Around 2002 I gave my first ever PC (Mitsubishi Apricot Pentium 75) to the guy that lived next to my grandparents, he died late last year but it turned out that up until his last few months he was still using it daily to play cribbage and scrabble, his grandson said it had kept him sane during the pandemic.

I got it second hand from a computer fair, it was also my first attempt at doing an upgrade, I replaced the Pentium 75 CPU with a... Pentium 90!

It had gone yellow with age but this is how it would have looked if it had been kept out of the sunlight:

From the days when every PC case had its own style and character.

 

[Villan]

Prisoner laments reliance on floppy disks for appeals documents, limiting file sizes to 1.44 MB — prisoners allowed 20 floppy disks in cell, but USB flash sticks are banned in New Jersey system

Each prisoner is allowed 20 floppy disks, but flash drives are verboten.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[jcb33]

Around 2002 I gave my first ever PC (Mitsubishi Apricot Pentium 75) to the guy that lived next to my grandparents, he died late last year but it turned out that up until his last few months he was still using it daily to play cribbage and scrabble, his grandson said it had kept him sane during the pandemic.

I got it second hand from a computer fair, it was also my first attempt at doing an upgrade, I replaced the Pentium 75 CPU with a... Pentium 90!

It had gone yellow with age but this is how it would have looked if it had been kept out of the sunlight:

From the days when every PC case had its own style and character.

You just taught me something. I always assumed they yellowed because of smoking! Now I know why mine never did go yellow. Because I am basically a vampire in my gaming room xD

 

[Armageus]

Shock as software that predated annual subscription / SaaS / mandatory software upgrades, allows old PCs to carry on running and being useful

 

[Rocky-Roader]

You just taught me something. I always assumed they yellowed because of smoking! Now I know why mine never did go yellow. Because I am basically a vampire in my gaming room xD

Haha I used to think the same, I'd see "vintage" on eBay and think woahh getting the smell of smoke off that thing is gonna be a mission for someone

 

[Villan]

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks

From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[dave28]

I used to work in a MET office building with all the weather forecasters. They were using Windows XP machines even after Windows 10 was released.

 

[KraniX]

You just taught me something. I always assumed they yellowed because of smoking! Now I know why mine never did go yellow. Because I am basically a vampire in my gaming room xD

Part of the reason is sunlight, it is also caused by bromine in the plastic which is added as a flame retardant.