Bruce Toback wrote in message ...
>What does it do to TCO when your software strategy requires you to throw
>away your hardware every two years?

I'm not quite sure what this means, but I have been running Windows NT since
version 3.1, Beta 2
(October '92) on my 1992 Model Zeos 486/100 with 64MB memory.   Outside of
increasing memory
from the original 16MB to 64 MB, it is virtually unchanged except for
updates to NT over the last six
years (current level is 4.0/SP4).  The box still has it's original pair of
340MB IDE drives, an HP 1.3GB
SCSI drive,  NEC '2X' CDROM,  Archive QIC/SCSI Tape Drive, Diamond 'Viper'
Video, MicroSoft
Sound system, Three 3-COM modems, a 3-COM LAN card,.MicroSoft "Bus" mouse,
and 3.5"/5.25"
floppies.  All of this stuff except for 2 of the Modems has been in
continuous use since Jan '93.
I have never had a case where any hardware or software that was running
then has needed to be
replaced due to an 'NT' upgrade.   I have never used such a stable and
backward compatible
OS -- other than MPE.   While I do compiles and CPU intensive work on my '96
Micron
Dual Pentium-Pro Box with 128MB, the old ZEOS is my "daily driver" and
handles all of the
daily WP, accounting, and Internet access (using it right now) .   It is
also used for client testing
for various server SW that I have running on the Micron and/or '917.  It has
crashed maybe 4-5 times
in the past 6+ years, mainly due to 'buggy' 3rd-party "PM" software/drivers
(about the same rate
as my '917/LX).  Performance is perfectly adequate for the typical workload
that I run on my desktop.
The Micron is used for the rest. Most of the cases of NT problems that I
have investigated at customer
sites have to do with inappropriate hardware/drivers  (i.e. "junk"),  poorly
designed 3-party software
apps, and/or lack of good system management/tuning.    My ZEOS was
written-off almost 4 years ago,
and is still a valuable asset here at Cactech.  The 'TCO' is probably the
lowest of any system here.

Winston K.