win95/98/ME and printers. An ethics issue comparable to DRM servers or not?

[Oren Beck]

On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 3:40 PM, Leo Mauler <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Wed, 7/30/08, Christofer C. Bell
> <christofer.c.bell at gmail.com> wrote:
>

>
> Chris, I don't think you get what I'm saying.  There's a difference between what you are saying, maintenance, and what I was saying, which is "don't deny access to existing already-created drivers."
>
> By your reasoning every single file associated with Slackware 2.0 needs to be hunted down and *destroyed* so that no one can ever use it again (a rough translation of your statement "in the real world, no one is running Slackware 2.0...everyone else moves on").  I'm not saying "write me drivers so Slackware 2.0 can use USB," I'm saying let me use Slackware 2.0 *as it was in 1994*, right now if I want to.
>
> And the fact is that just because software is old doesn't mean it is completely obsolete, it just means it is *old*.  Solutions aren't dependent on the latest and greatest, they are dependent on what *works*.  I've got an inkjet printer which can do photographs, but that doesn't mean that a pencil and paper, archaic technology, don't have their uses in a modern society (such as now, as the printer is out of ink).
>
> What HP is doing isn't refusing to maintain their printers, it is actively choosing not to provide, even on an "as-is, don't expect support" fashion, *existing* drivers.  Drivers which require no work to create, because they were already here.  Drivers which require no work to distribute, because they were already available on the HP website.  They've just (metaphorically speaking) tracked down and *destroyed* every CD and floppy collection of Slackware 7.1 (current as of 1998).
>
> I have a very old Pentium I laptop still running that same "10-year-old OS", namely Slackware 7.1.  The laptop won't run anything better as it only has a floppy drive and no CD drive (not even a USB port).  What the laptop does do is manage all my recipes in my kitchen, and allows me to write essays or thoughts, or play simple games, while the bread is rising or the water is getting ready to boil.  An old wired Ethernet card does a nice job of connecting me to the basement server and very basic Internet connectivity.  Fact is that I wouldn't want to risk a $1000+ laptop right next to the stove, and don't have the space for a bulky tower case and monitor.
>
> Sometimes older is a *better choice* than newer
>
> _______________________________________________

Leo gets the point. Sadly HP and some others do not. Maybe we can
teach by example? I've been proposing an ethics concept. That we
create a method for archiving deprecated code to preserve it. As a
concrete example consider a Usenet reader for Palm called "Palm
Reader" Lior Abraham wrote it and sold it thru Cnet etc.
Sadly he seems to have abandoned the project. I wish it could be
ported over to Linux. It's a dead orphan-nay stillborn or more aptly
put- aborted by neglect.

-- 
Oren Beck

816.729.3645