It's surprising how much mission critical corporate infrastructure runs on
old platforms. When I was a tech at an IBM data center ten years ago, there
was tons of old junk running monitoring and disaster-recovery systems for
big corps, with whining hard drives and irreplaceable hardware - disasters
waiting to happen. I was amazed at the willingness of managers to roll the
dice at that level with that much wealth on the line. I doubt that has
changed, though older PC gear is much more capable now than what was old
then.

Anyway, for small shops it is reasonable to run old stuff isolated so long
as you don't create more hassle with that than the effort of upgrades. Keep
a close eye on the HW and the 'restorablility' of your old box. Keep system
images, compatible maintenance utilities, and spare parts on hand. If you
are only going to play in your own sandbox, that's fine. If you need skills
that are portable, or you need to interoperate with other environments or
people who have moved on, then it's good to stay conversant with newer
formats, interfaces, and standards. Unlike tape machines, there isn't
usually anything endearingly better about older computer gear, and upgrades
are deductible business expenses.

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dan Nelson
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 11:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The end of Windows XP? So What !!!

So what if MS stops security updates for XP.....
I have xp pro running on all of my stand alone audio work stations... none
of them are on line !
Just like 10's of thousand corporate computers are running XP isolated from
the internet as long as XP runs the existing internal programs MS dropping
support doesnt matter.
My work stations are running Intel I3 with 8 gigs of ram .... more than xp
knows what to do with but they run 12-18 hours a day and never blink.
Just run XP off line and save the hassel of finding replacement programs .
dnward
Beautiful Music you will never forget, at;
http://www.americanbeautiful.podbean.com/