A couple of other things this inspires in me:<p>1. Your systems can last longer if they&#x27;re based on free software, so you don&#x27;t have to worry about a dependency going away and you not being able to fix it.  (And of course effective copy protection here is the kiss of death.)<p>2. Your systems can last longer if they have <i>less</i> dependencies.  (I tried to compile a six-months-old Guix from six months ago from source for several days.  This was difficult because it depends on so many things.)<p>3. Your systems can last longer if the dependencies they have are <i>more popular</i>.  Installing DOSBOX today is a lot easier than installing an emulator that will emulate the Tandy 1000 version of MS-DOS.  (I think Lotus 1-2-3 had a Tandy version, right?)  This is synergistic with the previous two: your free-software dependencies are still going to be a pain to handle if nobody else uses them.<p>4. Your systems can last longer if they&#x27;re <i>internally simpler</i>, so that you can fix them when they do fail.