Jack, therein lies the conundrum of when a computer stops being a personal computer, and becomes an enterprise machine.
A hypothetical situation - I am running a photography business, so I have many different programs I purchased for Windows XP, in order to operate my business. But, as time has gone by, Windows XP was replaced by Windows Vista, some six years later. Two years after than, Windows 7 replaced Vista. Three years after that, Windows 8 was rolled out. And my first reaction is to scream like a mashed cat, at the cost of constantly having to upgrade my computer systems. (And for those who are not aware, Windows 9, code-named 'Threshold' is being rushed for a possible late-2014 release, so get ready for another round of the same-old-same-old.)
But let's stop and think about that for a moment. In the same 13 years since my hypothetical business first started using Windows XP, how many camera bodies have I purchased? How many lenses? Haven't I been upgrading that equipment over the same time period? (Heck, even as just someone who wants photographic evidence of my misspent life, I can open up a box that still has my old Canon AE-1 packed away, along with the Sony digital camera that stored photos on 3.5" floppy disks, no less.) How many professional photographers are still shooting to film, these days?
Sure, there is nothing more fun than to have high-tech 'toys' (and I certainly don't mean that in a negative way), but we also need to understand and accept that time marches on and if we are going to stay atop of whatever we are doing, we need to be prepared to march right along with it. I can recall a time when businesses used manual cash registers and adding machines, but can you name a single business that still does those things? How many businesses do you see trying to operate point of purchase machines on OS/2? What?!? You mean OS/2, an operating system that was released 27 years ago is no longer viable for business use???
I've run into problems with old operating systems and old software, in the operation of my Web sites. Ask
@Keeper how long it has been since machines on the network he is responsible for stopped using Internet Explorer 6. Heck, this forum software is a struggle for IE 7, let alone IE 6. And as sure as I am sitting here, XP will create all those same kinds of nightmares for me. Westminster decided to pay Microsoft a fee of $9.2 million a year, to maintain XP support for government computers in the dis-United Kingdom. And we all know that employees only use company computers to accomplish their daily workload, aye?
Several US banks are making the same move. People, people, people, XP is dead. Let it go, bury it and get on with life. But no, some 2 or 3 years from now, somebody on a network that is still running XP is going to complain they cannot see images on the forum, or cannot post to the forum, or cannot register for the forum.
Are you still watching black and white television, with signal provided from a rooftop antenna?
Are you still using a wind-up alarm clock?
Are you still shaving with a straight razor, or a safety razor? (
I would have to answer 'yes' to that one)
Are you still burning coal to heat your home?
Are you still using a crank telephone to communicate with others?
Are you still using payphones to communicate with others, when you are away from your home?
Are you still using a stove top and oven to prepare and warm food, or do you own a microwave oven?
Are you still listening to 8-track tapes in your car?
Are you still using a portable cassette tape player, to listen to music whilst you work?
Are you still using a typewriter to prepare printed documents?
Are you still storing computer data on 5.25" floppy disks?
If you've been upgrading all of these things, then why have you been so resistant to upgrading the computer you use to do so many other things in your life?
I really do understand, I am as thrifty and as frugal (not to be confused with being a wedge-arsed tightwad) as the next person. But when it comes down to keeping my computer systems up to date, I don't stick my head in the sand and hide from it all. And I am the fellow who is typing this post on a Dell PC that is almost 8 years old, a machine shipped with nothing other than Windows XP installed.
Updating and upgrading doesn't always mean spending a boatload of money.
@409T has mentioned he runs an older CAD program under WINE, on his Linux machines. As I pointed out in another thread,
Code Weavers offers CrossOver, which will let you run Windows programs on a Linux machine. But there is a snag, because it will cost you $60/year to keep a CrossOver license current. And you make it sound like Linux scripts, such as
K-3D,
QCAD,
BRL-CAD,
GIMP and
Rawstudio don't even exist. I just looked and the software installer for this particular version of Linux has all of those, except BRL-CAD, available for download. No need to order anything, or drive anywhere to get the programs, I can just download them. At no cost.
People often fail to understand when Linux users talk about free operating systems and free software. They think that means if it is free, it must be junk. Or if it is free, it must be cripple-ware. Or if it is free, it must not be fully-featured. Actually, the Linux operating systems come at no cost, as does the software. What we are talking about when we say free is freedom. Antergos Linux is no cost, but it is me that is free, because I run it.