Comment on If it ain't broke
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 2 months agoThe idea that a job req could actually ask for “50+ years experience” in a given piece of computing technology just gives me goosebumps. Like someone did a really good job 50 years ago, or a really bad one. Either way, it’s astonishing that any one thing could be in production use that long or longer.
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 2 months ago
When a piece of software does a very limited set of tasks that cannot be meaningfully improved, and when minor mistakes can equate up millions in cash or even lives lost or ruined, the name of the game is maintain, maintain, maintain. It ain’t broke, and upgrading or porting your system will inevitably lead to some sort of mistake.
dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 2 months ago
You’re exactly right. And if the retrocomputing and retrogaming communities have taught us anything, it’s that good emulation can make such systems last for a very long time.
psud@aussie.zone 2 months ago
IBM are still making mainframes
I note they recently changed the way they charge large users , to the benefit of users with uneven compute loads (after buying an IBM mainframe you must also pay IBM for the amount of processing you do on it)