Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#1

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:00 PM UTC

Someone in a thread about Perl wrote: ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1660670 ):

> I would not at all be surprised if some critical infrastructure that must run lest a bunch of people gets killed is written in PDP 9 assembler.

That piqued my curiosity, what is the oldest piece of gear that you've still got up and running?

I've checked my own stuff and it seems the oldest machine that is still in use is about 4 years old.

I don't care about things that you have lying around that 'might still boot' or that are kept for sentimental value, old gear that is still running production of some sort.

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#2

Post by davidw » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:10 PM UTC

I wouldn't expect too many people here have old stuff because 1) it's a fairly young group and 2) startups get to start fresh. Of course there'll likely be a few exceptions, too, that might be interesting. edw519 probably has something that he has to feed paper tapes to regularly:-)

("Piqued my curiosity", BTW)

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#3

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:16 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #2

I wouldn't expect too many people here have old stuff because 1) it's a fairly young group and 2) startups get to start fresh. Of course there'll likely be a few exceptions, too, that might be interesting. edw519 probably has something that he has to feed paper tapes to regularly:-) ("Piqued my curiosity", BTW)

> Piqued my curiosity

Fixed, thanks. That should teach me to go from hearing to writing without checking ;)

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#4

Post by hockeybias » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:17 PM UTC

Windows 2000 server

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#5

Post by sgt » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:26 PM UTC

Sun Blade 2000

I'm actually planning to put an SSD in it, but my co-workers say it's a waste of money. That may be true, but it'll be the coolest Blade 2000 out there.

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#6

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:27 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #5

Sun Blade 2000 I'm actually planning to put an SSD in it, but my co-workers say it's a waste of money. That may be true, but it'll be the coolest Blade 2000 out there.

Neat! What is it doing ?

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#7

Post by jsz0 » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:31 PM UTC

We retired our last OS/2 & NT 3.51 server this year but still have a few NT4 machines. These servers are part of integrated solutions that were EOL-ed long ago but were still functional enough to stay in production.

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#8

Post by dandelany » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:31 PM UTC

The company I work for has two fax servers for the handful of people in the world who still think it's amazing that you can send paper through the telephone. They're Gateway 2000s. Don't know the exact model, but they still have this logo on them:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Gateway_2000_L...

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#9

Post by sgt » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:36 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #6

sgt wrote: post #5

Sun Blade 2000 I'm actually planning to put an SSD in it, but my co-workers say it's a waste of money. That may be true, but it'll be the coolest Blade 2000 out there.

Neat! What is it doing ?

It runs Glassfish and ActiveMQ.

Re: Ask HN: What is the oldest computer that you still use for production?

#10

Post by tomjen3 » Fri, Sep 03, 2010, 8:37 PM UTC

I posted that comment, but I don't really expect any startup to have that old tech (except as a curiosity).

I was thinking more of big enterprise or same bank or a transportation company that has been around for so long that a lot of their tech was made by people who not only isn't there anymore but nobody currently there worked with.

Take the example from wired of a how many companies still use punch cards in 1999 (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.03/punchcards.html) or the related question I posted to stack overflow (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/750606/what-technologies-...) some time ago. There are some very interesting responses to that, though there is also a lot of fluff.