[mistrial9]

.. booting a machine with Ubuntu 1404 as this is written, it is NOT so easy as 'snapshot and run it forever' because the OS people are trying to HELP you by FORCE to get a current version, plus so much of these machines success was networking, is network based, and relies on network to operate more things that anyone casually realizes..

It is a GOOD thing to run old versions, for purpose, by your personal choice. It is NOT GOOD to have help by force, and in the US law system at least, many individual rights are based on this assumption, even with some inevitable negative outcomes. Please note that in many parts of the world, and in many kinds of organization, this trade-off is NOT made, and quite a few fundamental technical decisions are going to be made along the lines of 'do it, there is no choice'