Quote Originally Posted by Zachary View Post
Its cause companies don't like to upgrade do to money; Nor do thy update their OS with patches fearing it'll make their software or hardware not work. My work place uses XP, and a BAM had 3.11 on their cash registers last time I went there.
Because a cash register doesn't need to do anything else. Why would a grocery store upgrade their point of sales system when it works just fine.

Out here, every single grocery and drug store is still using the exact same IBM 386-era hardware LED displays, cash drawers, and so forth, but they've added a LCD panel that shows your receipt being built in real time instead of what used to happen in the 80's where it was printed one line at a time and if you changed your mind on something they had to take a pen and cross things off the receipt. They started adding these things around 2004 (Walmart was first) and have barely changed since.

Same with your fast food places. They all upgraded to touch screen systems some time ago, but they're never going to replace those any time soon. We're now moving to the "self-serve" kiosk model where you order everything at the kiosk or on your cell phone, and then just show the order number to the person at the restaurant, despite this clearly being abusable.

Yes, many places do hold onto hardware for ages, but these are usually "embedded" markets, not office PC's. Small businesses tend to have to upgrade in a faster cycle or they don't get to write it off for tax purposes. But those write offs have to span several years, so it may take 10 years to completely write off a $10,000 purchase, when it's warranty only lasts 3 years and is considered obsolete after 7.