[lalalandland]

I have a Yamaha Motif Rack synth, from around 2004. It has software to aid in the parameter settings if you want to make a new sound. It is a advanced synth and quite complicated. The tiny screen and knobs on the front panel is very fiddly to use so software on a computer is a better solution. But I fear that in just a few years the 2004 software will not run on any new computer and I will have to keep old computers around to program the synth.

[whenchamenia]

I have that issue on some current gear, most notably the Yamaha MagicStomp. An amazing pedal, still prized by many looking for certain sounds. Handicapped by windows xp only software that just barely runs on a Win7. I keep an old laptop around for that and 2 other devices. Its not a sustainable situation, and many neat devices are becoming impractical if not imposible to use a decade on.

[rwmj]

I wouldn't worry too much about not being able to run the software forever -- after all virtualization, DOSbox and whatever means we can run both recently old and ancient software. But I came to say has no one reverse engineered the protocol and implemented open source software for it?