Eero Ahonen wrote:
> Somewhere around 1999 there was a virus released at internet, which
> reflashed the BIOS (if possible) and therefore rendered the MoBo
> unusable for most people.

I remember that. You could also reprogram both hercules graphics cards 
and Radio Shack TRS-80 Model II machines to turn off the H and V refresh 
on the video, overheating the spot in the middle of the screen until the 
tube cracked.

> One more point is that the hw-manufacturers won't get any more money of
> writing drivers for old hw on new os. The money is collected when the
> new hw is sold - and on that time most buyers won't check the company
> habits for this kind of things.

Yeah. It's just reputation-enhancing. I think a lot of CAD-using 
companies relied on Matrox, so knowing their expensive workstations 
weren't going to need to be fixed was a useful thing for Matrox, 
encouraging future sales.  But the really high-end gaming cards are out 
of date faster than the OS is anyway, so ... what difference does it make?

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

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