Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 07:12:46 +0000 From: Peter Risdon <peter@circlesquared.com> To: David Kelly <dkelly@HiWAAY.net> Cc: FreeBSD_Questions FreeBSD_Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: old scsi adapters and the benefits of open source [was: Anthony's issues [Slightly OT]] Message-ID: <1111561966.751.352.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com> In-Reply-To: <6d0f6ca428b7b2c085df02fdcaaff3be@HiWAAY.net> References: <423E116D.50805@usmstudent.com> <423EEE60.2050205@dial.pipex.com> <eeef1a4c0503211224572d64e4@mail.gmail.com> <eeef1a4c050322010021fd8eb4@mail.gmail.com> <334ed8bd3d1e5ee9582b706d65919fb4@chrononomicon.com> <20050322133006.GB22896@pcwin002.win.tue.nl> <Pine.OSX.4.61.0503220838370.23402@valkyrie.local> <1111507893.751.298.camel@lorna.circlesquared.com> <6d0f6ca428b7b2c085df02fdcaaff3be@HiWAAY.net>
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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.
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