Comment by bitwize

Ultimately that kind of question doesn't really matter. The only question that matters is "who will fix it when it breaks?" The Amiga system was a single machine running custom code written by one guy. If that guy dies or decides to quit maintaining it and it fails, hundreds of school kids are going to end up shivering or overheating for who knows how long. That's an unpleasant risk that may prove more costly than the $1.5mil it cost to replace it. The new system was written by a team, working at a company that specializes in this sort of thing, that has credentials proving it complies with relevant industry and safety standards, and a contract binding it to a term of service and support. That shit's worth its weight in gold to businesses and governments, even though it doesn't necessarily result in added functionality. So while it's fun to post "look at what they need to mimic a fraction of our power" memes about old systems like that, there's a reason why these are done by teams working at institutional organizations. It helps defray the risk.

In the late 90s I was interning at a place, and one of the IT guys there was old, we're talking white beard. He thought Linux was an absolute joke, and told me that the future of IT belonged to Windows NT (though it should have belonged to OS/2). The reason why is because with Linux, there was "no ass to drag onto the carpet"—no one to sue when it breaks. With Windows, the largest and most successful software company of all time was backing it up, staking their entire business on customer satisfaction. Of course, he ended up being wrong about Linux, but only because companies (mainly Red Hat) stepped up to assume the risk for big clients. That's one of the major functions of business—to provide an arm for customers to twist.