this is why I find comparing mostly-solid-state stuff with big mechanical contraptions a frustrating exercise.

it's more impressive to me that the electric fans within the Stratus server still operate than it is that the chips still work, and if we're going with the plane metaphor it's the silicon that puts the thing into the air, not the simple fans.

So really it just boils down to "well, the planes work is harder." as to why it fails, which is of course abstract and unsatisfying; comparing the comparative lifetime workloads of a chip that has shifted trillions of bits versus some jet engines that have moved millions of kilograms around the world.

and then another layer comes and makes it even weirder : the vast majority of hardware around the world that has been EoLd and replaced has been in that situation due to software, not the hardware itself; a paradigm that really doesn't exist in the physical engineering world in the same was as it does CS.

Yeah, it’s not a good comparison. Give me endless parts and a maintenance window of 6 months every so often and I can make any server last a century.

That would not be a useful airliner.

Was going to say, there's servers that last several decades, they receive routine maintenance, most people buy a computer, and rarely replace parts, and if enough years pass, you opt to buy a new one instead.

I'm not sure, but I think there are a few submarines that have remained underwater for that long.