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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Intel is removing drivers and BIOS for its old desktop boards so anyone running an old Pentium-based PC has four days to get hold of anything they might need.
The warning on Intel's download center page says:
End Of Life - This download, BIOS Update [RL86510A.86A] P21, will no longer be available after November 22, 2019 and will not be supported with any additional functional, security, or other updates. All versions are provided as is. Intel recommends that users of BIOS Update [RL86510A.86A] P21 uninstall and/or discontinue use as soon as possible.
Opinion on message boards is mixed, with some accepting that a 20-year support cycle is not terrible. But others pointed out that some industries like manufacturing will still be relying on old hardware to run parts of their infrastructure.
Posters on Vogon, a forum dedicated to ancient hardware and emulators that allow you to run old games on newer machines, questioned the move and how much space and storage Intel would really save by the housekeeping measure.
Various people are setting up their own mirrors and using archive.org, but the maker community noted that file names are not always obvious and downloading from mirror sites can be risky.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Tuesday November 19 2019, @11:19PM (7 children)
Seriously, what's the harm in keeping them up? You could probably manage the load on that website with a 486sx
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 4, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday November 19 2019, @11:46PM (1 child)
Why aren't these softwares now considered public domain?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Wednesday November 20 2019, @02:28AM
That's precisely what should happen when support is dropped. Then the archiving websites can post them. Copyright/patent and support should be inseparable.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday November 20 2019, @03:42AM (3 children)
intel loves to remove things from their site.
even whole programs! case in point, I was involved in a TV show of theirs (americas greatest makers). go try to find info on that, its even purged from archive.org. a whole TV season on TBS, a few years ago, IoT focused using an intel curie chip (ok, go try to find info on THAT, as well!) - all gone. their website interviews, the time and effort people put into that - and it was on national tv for a whole season.
try to find any mention of it on intel's website. nope! wiped clean.
now, sure, they were embarassed about it; it was kind of a failure, in many ways. but still, it was a thing and it happened; yet there's no ref to it and they had to go to extra effort to get archive.org to not mirror it, or purge it.
after experiencing that, nothing that intel does would surprise me. otoh, the left hand really does not know what the right hand does, over there.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Wednesday November 20 2019, @07:37AM (2 children)
While I believe that you believe you know what you're talking about, I'm not sure what you're talking about.
There are plenty of references to that show. Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
Here is a link to a PDF about the Curie chip on Intel's site -> Cure Chip [intel.com]
I was 100% for your story though!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday November 20 2019, @08:11AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quark [wikipedia.org]
Another one bites the dust... :(
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Wednesday November 20 2019, @04:26PM
there are not 'plenty of references' ON INTELs SITE. that's my point. external refs, but intel did its best to purge all refs to it, internally.
when I searched using intel's own main page, I found only 2 refs and those were either dead links or incorrect links (one goes to a dot com domain that is not even owned BY intel!
they did start a season 2 but it never completed and never aired. it was not too much longer after that that big brian was fired and left intel.
to be honest, that whole show was an ego boost for brian.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Wednesday November 20 2019, @06:23PM
You're not kidding. Those are typically less that 500K each. I mean ffs.