> Finally ending on my initial point, if you have older equipment 8 bit
> software that is not supported anymore or provided by a company  that is
> long gone, it is time to consider modernizing your current framework to
> a more robust and compatible base.  It is that simple.

lol... tell that to some of our faculty who are using 10+ year old systems connected to lab equipment.  The stuff works just fine and upgrades/replacements can go into the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars.  The Linear Accelerator that was purchased by the Veterinary Teaching Hospital a couple of years back was a used piece of equipment built in the 90's and one of the systems attached to it runs HP-UX v10.2 (circa 1996), you don't even want to know what that cost let alone trying to buy it brand new.

As for Windows Vista, I'd hardly call that progression.  An accurate comparison would be:

Microsoft: You should replace your current bouncy ball with our new shiny one
Customer: What's benefits does it have?  does it bounce higher?
Microsoft: Well actually no, it doesn't really bounce at all and when it does it goes in erratic directions... also it can randomly just deflate on you and we have yet to design a pump that is compatible with it so you can't re-inflate it.. yet
Customer: okay...
Microsoft: But it's shiny!


-- 

Stephen Bogdanski           
Network Support
College of Veterinary Medicine
Michigan State University