[inetknght]

> These things are not as trivial as you think they are when that computer is connected to industrial equipment that costs millions of dollars, you have no test environment, the original vendor no longer exists, and any failure or downtime at best will cause millions in financial losses, and at worst will maim or kill people.

> you have no test environment

That can be solved.

> the original vendor no longer exists

Even more reason that your company needs to upgrade.

> That computer is connected to industrial equipment that costs millions of dollars ... any failure or downtime at best will cause millions in financial losses

I heard a minute of downtime on an oil rig costs millions in financial losses.

So a fuck-up is extremely expensive. Nothing new to me. I've also worked in industries where a fuck-up can cost lives. That's also extremely expensive.

Trust me, there are software engineers and hardware engineers who know your pains and aren't afraid of how difficult you think this stuff is. Yes it's difficult, no it's not impossible. And it's a lot cheaper than you think if it's done right.

[jajuuka]

Why would you take a working system and replace it with one that introduces an entirely new set of bugs and issues that needs to be ironed out? Who benefits in that scenario beside support getting paid by the hour?

[daedrdev]

In my experience working in manufacturing almost always far more important things to be worked on, especially since either way you have to setup the windows machine because production needs to be back up today.

[kube-system]

> Trust me, there are software engineers and hardware engineers who know your pains and aren't afraid of how difficult you think this stuff is.

If you think I’m describing a software engineering problem, I don’t think you understand what I’m saying.

Sure, you can do anything with infinite time and money, but those can be quite prohibitive where the limitations are tens of millions of dollars and/or a years of regulatory hurdles.

I’ll give you an easy example:

I have maintained multimillion dollar surgical equipment that ran outdated versions of Windows. Even if you were an expert in all the required disciplines, You can’t change the software on the thing without recertifying the system, which is more expensive than buying a new one. (Not to mention that the organizations that use these devices aren’t credentialed to even begin that process) The only viable solution is to maintain it to the original specifications and implement appropriate security precautions until the useful end of life. There is literally no other workable scenario that isn’t laughably ridiculous.