Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?

	Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?
	287 points by mlaux 18 days ago \| 297 comments
	tl;dr: An Ask HN post seeking people still running business-critical DOS-era software (dBase, Clipper, Paradox) or industrial equipment dependent on ISA cards, GPIB interfaces, or parallel port dongles. The author is researching an idea for keeping such legacy systems running on modern hardware and wants to hear from those maintaining them.
	HN Discussion: ↑Shares stories of legacy non-DOS systems (NT4, Win98, SCO Unix) kept alive for critical business functions ↑Confirms actively maintaining DOS/dBase systems, sometimes already virtualized on modern hardware ↑Highlights hardware I/O dependencies (ISA cards, EPROM programmers) as the core challenge for migration ↑Notes industrial/medical equipment running customized DOS as reliable and hard to replace •Describes how sourcing compatible embedded x86 hardware became impossible, forcing eventual migration away from DOS