16 Years of Uptime

Image Source: Ars Technica.

Ars Technica ran a piece on an Intel server that ran for sixteen years until it was shut down this past March; the server had in its uptime spanned most of the history of the public Internet:

It's September 23, 1996. It's a Monday. The Macarena is pumping out of the office radio, mid-way through its 14 week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, doing little to improve the usual Monday gloom.

Easing yourself into the week, you idly thumb through a magazine, and read about Windows NT 4.0, released just a couple of months previous. You wonder to yourself whether Microsoft's hot new operating system might finally be worth using.

Then it's down to work. Microsoft can keep its fancy GUIs and graphical server operating systems. NetWare 3.12 is where it's at: bulletproof file and print sharing. The server, named INTEL after its process, needs an update, so you install it and reboot. It comes up fine, so you get on with the rest of your day.

Sixteen and a half years later, INTEL's hard disks—a pair of full height 5.25 inch 800 MB Quantum SCSI devices—are making some disconcerting noises from their bearings, and you're tired of the complaints. It's time to turn off the old warhorse.

Connection Terminated. It seems almost criminal.

The server was decommissioned by ... Axatax, as documented in this thread.

Image Source: Ars Technica.

 Image Source: Ars Technica.