[Hidden-tech] VM MS-Windows 7 upgrade: necessary or worth bothering?

[Robert Heller]

At the Wendell Free Library we have a 99.9% Linux shop. We have 1 virtual
machine that runs MS-Windows 7 (happens to be a 32-bit install, although the
server is 64-bit). This VM is used (two times a year) for one thing only: to
run a Java program that talks to the heating system to change it from summer
mode to winter mode and back again. It is a Johnson Controls system. No other
applications are ever run on it, just the one Java program (which as far as I
can tell only runs under MS-Windows, despite being written in Java).

Is it worth the trouble to upgrade this VM?  I have no clue if the Java 
program will even run under MS-Windows 10, and I suspect if we want to run a 
newer version of the Java application, we would need to have Johnson Controls 
upgrade the firmware in the HVAC, which would probably cost $3,000 or some 
such (that is what it cost when we had things upgraded from the MS-Windows XP 
version...).  It might actually be cheaper to replace the HVAC control 
system with something *other* than Johnson Controls.  Eg pull the Johnson 
Controls "box" and replace it with a Raspberry Pi or something.


-- 
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