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

[Luke -Jr]

On Thursday 31 July 2008, Christofer C. Bell wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Luke -Jr <luke at dashjr.org> wrote:
> > On Thursday 31 July 2008, Christofer C. Bell wrote:
> > > On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 2:35 AM, Jon Pruente <jdpruente at gmail.com>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > > Wait, what?  I'm pretty sure it started with Leo mentioning a desire
> > > > to give an HP printer away to one, but could not find drivers to use
> > > > on their old P2 running Win98...
> > >
> > > The original post from Oren Beck:
> >
> > On Saturday 26 July 2008, Leo Mauler wrote:
> > > I was going to donate a HP printer to the arts center I'm volunteering
> > > for, but the computer they have right now is a PII-233Mhz machine
> > > running Windows98.  This turns out to be a sticking point which prevents
> > > the printer from being useful to them, as I don't have the original
> > > Windows driver CD.
>
> So when you said,
>
> "Isn't that the original post of this thread? ;)"
>
> You didn't actually mean the original post of the thread, you meant the
> post somewhere in the middle of the thread as I pointed out here:
>
> "No, actually, the original post was Oren comparing the discontinuance of
> vendor support for decade old software with Digital Rights Management.  The
> charity came in as a hypothetical somewhere... back there... *points up at
> the thread*"
>
> Is that right?

Nope. Feel free to put a timestamp on your citation.
Leo's post started this thread.

> While I appreciate that they're wanting to, I can only assume, save money
> by not purchasing something made in the 21st century, this smells like
> mismanagement to me.  If the technology choices they make prevent them from
> doing their job, then they're not a charity I would want distributing my
> money.

Perhaps their business software, used for doing their job, is still DOS-based.
Certainly, Windows 2000 had a decent DOS emulator, but it wasn't perfect.
Windows 98 is the best choice for this type of application, if a GUI is 
wanted.

> Perhaps you'd be willing to invest some of your time, charitably, of
> course, in setting them up with a Linux system (or even a new Windows
> system) that can help them effectively manage incoming contributions and
> distribute them to those in need.

DOS applications can be just as effective as Linux or Win32 applications.