I’m going to draw from the article and from my personal experience (somewhat related viewpoint of computers in small companies’ chemistry labs) and point out th

I’m going to draw from the article and from my personal experience (somewhat related viewpoint of computers in small companies’ chemistry labs) and point out the leading cause of this obsolete technology persisting: cost (or rather, price). Mainly we’re dealing with deliberate decisions not to upgrade exclusively based on price. This is quite disturbing (as an economist). It’s probable that by keeping the prices high on software the companies reap benefits from those clients that are willing to pay (presumably for updated specifications and algorithms but mainly for compatibility with newer systems), they’re also relegating users by not providing a more convenient and reasonably priced upgrade path that covers merely the compatibility aspect.