4 ms·
Yeah but they had a problem. The people who wrote the software for their business never gave them the source code and either died or retired. It apparently only
by orionblastar 10y ago
Yeah but they had a problem. The people who wrote the software for their business never gave them the source code and either died or retired. It apparently only works with Solaris 7 under SPARCServers and SPARC Stations.
They claim without the source code, the cost of rewriting it would be more than the cost of running a QEMU virtual machine on a Linux box.
They even had an OpenBSD Box with the same problem using an old version of software with no source code. But I think they could run the old OpenBSD on an X86 box or QEMU machine as there was no SPARC factor like with Solaris 7.
Apparently a lot of small IT shops pay people to write software in the 1990s, and get binaries but no source code because the contract didn't specify they get the source code. Contractors had the source code but kept it from the client to make sure they still get business to modify the software and the client doesn't hire someone else. During the Dotcom busts the contractors went out of business or one of them died from being old and nobody knows where the source code is located. Might be in a storage locker, they forgot to pay, and it was auctioned off. Might belong to a lawyer or underwriting who bought out the stock and IP and nobody knows who that person is.