On Mon, 25 Oct 1999 CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com wrote:
> >>Sure, if the old stuff works, why change? (Even if it -is- obsolete!)
> >>It does indeed make sense.
>
> >I can honestly say that is where you and I differ greatly: the definition
> >of "obsolete."
>
> One of my all-time favorite .sig lines (I forget whose it was) said:
>
> " Don't think of it as a `new' computer, think of it as `obsolete-ready' "
>
> While collectors may argue about "obsolete" - a term, that to my ears,
> smacks of PC-clone salesman-speak - in the world of business
> and industrial computing, platforms that are old and well-established
> are called "legacy systems". It's generally acknowledged that if a
> system does its job well and reliably, it is "legacy"; the mark of a
> non-legacy system is that it is under constant development, crashes often,
> and doesn't fill its design specs.
Tim, I think "legacy" is certainly kinder and gentler. It also has a
certain charm about it. There is another term that the dictionery
browsers might check out, and that is obsolescent - a rather more
transient (and accurately descriptive) status.
> Of course, here I'm talking about more than hardware, and more than
> hardware+software, but how a system fits into the real world and performs
> a useful function.
Exactly!
- don
> --
> Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa_at_trailing-edge.com
> Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/
> 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917
> Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927
>
Received on Mon Oct 25 1999 - 22:34:11 BST