From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 23 07:13:08 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF69616A4CE for ; Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:13:08 +0000 (GMT) Received: from lorna.circlesquared.com (host217-45-219-85.in-addr.btopenworld.com [217.45.219.85]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C097B43D4C for ; Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:13:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from peter@circlesquared.com) Received: from localhost.circlesquared.com (localhost.circlesquared.com [127.0.0.1])j2N7Ckdh024526; Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:12:47 GMT (envelope-from peter@circlesquared.com) From: Peter Risdon To: David Kelly In-Reply-To: <6d0f6ca428b7b2c085df02fdcaaff3be@HiWAAY.net> References: <423E116D.50805@usmstudent.com> <423EEE60.2050205@dial.pipex.com> <334ed8bd3d1e5ee9582b706d65919fb4@chrononomicon.com> <20050322133006.GB22896@pcwin002.win.tue.nl> <1111507893.751.298.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com> <6d0f6ca428b7b2c085df02fdcaaff3be@HiWAAY.net> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:12:46 +0000 Message-Id: <1111561966.751.352.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.3 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: FreeBSD_Questions FreeBSD_Questions Subject: Re: old scsi adapters and the benefits of open source [was: Anthony's issues [Slightly OT]] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:13:09 -0000 On Tue, 2005-03-22 at 18:58 -0600, David Kelly wrote: > On Mar 22, 2005, at 10:11 AM, Peter Risdon wrote: > > > By contrast, I maintain a networked Windows machine that controls > > plasma > > cutting systems for a manufacturing business. It uses a serial port > > connection to send cutting patterns to the plasma controller. The > > serial > > port communications software was custom-written and runs only on > > versions of DOS that shipped with Windows up to and including 98. It is > > specifically incompatible with Win ME and all the NT family including > > XP > > and 2000/2003. I don't have access to the source code either of the > > custom application or any currently maintained version of Windows (of > > course), so no hacked upgrades are possible and we have to run Win 98 - > > which is desperately horrible and insecure in a networked environment. > > I don't use Vmware, but what you describe sounds like a good > application for it. Run a Win98 virtual machine. Let a modern OS host, > wrap and protect the virtual machine. Do all the networking with the > host. Yes, that's a good idea. Thanks. It also addresses the problem I didn't mention of having to use old hardware (contemporary with W98) in a key role. Peter.