1980s Commodore Has Controlled Michigan School District's A/C for 30 Years

Back then computer hardware was much more reliability. The original IBM PC was built to a standard that achieved a mean-time-to-failure of 20 years. This is mainly due to pin-in-hole technology and low density silicon.

However, without surface mount technology and ultra high density chips, smart phones would be impossible.

A couple months ago I went through my company's basement and sent to recycle several Compaq computers. OMG they were solid and HEAVY! Old school rules :)

Having seen this kind of thing first-hand, the headline just screams "We invested in equipment with a proprietary, undocumented interface, and now we're stuck!" Because it's the easiest thing in the world to migrate a controller to a newer platform if you have the documentation, and it's huge nightmare to keep such uncommon old systems up and running. The littlest thing, like replacing a keyboard, or debugging a simple intermittent connection failure on an old, discontinued system becomes a massive and frustrating ordeal.

Meanwhile, if they had instead used a Unix-based system, like a Sun 68k workstation, it would have been pretty easy to upgrade to modern equivalents, and easy to find hardware, software, and people to continue to maintain it. Ditto for PCs running DOS, though in both cases the choice is infinitely easier to see in retrospect.

It really only sounds odd because it's a whole standalone computer. If you said "Michigan school district's A/C controlled by Z80 (processor) for past 30 years!" nobody would bat an eyelash, and it wouldn't be even slightly unusual.

My heating and air is controlled by a 60-year-old thermostat that runs on mercury and gravity. It works fine.