John Miles wrote:
That means that it's not really in Tek's best interest to
support their customers in their efforts to keep the old gear alive.

Isn't this where -- at least in the software arena -- the idea of
maintenance contracts comes in? Granted, the average hobbyist is typically
not going to buy into such a plan, but I would imagine most of Tek's sales
are to companies that would be willing to pay, e.g., 10-30% of the original
equipment cost per year for a guarantee that the equipment will be repaired
free of charge if it breaks. The new equipment is so much software-based as
well these days that Tek could also consider changing for software
upgrades -- although personally I'm quite happy that TDS3000 software
upgrades are free!

I am going to get myself a nice 2465B or perhaps a 2467 after finish school
and find myself a Real Job again -- in a sense those scopes seem like the
pinnacle of pure-analog scope development and even if they are only good to
400MHz, there'll continue to be plenty of designs that can be serviced by
such scopes for years to come.

It sucks that I can't get a replacement U800 for my 2467.

Ah, but wasn't someone mentioning that some third party is making compatible
replacements? It was supposedly very expensive, but if one person can do
it, surely others can as well -- and will, once there's some demand. Look
at the old computers such as the Commodore 64 -- these days people enjoy not
only completely emulating them in software (doesn't applies to scopes,
obviously) but also building equivalent pieces of hardware in FPGAs (e.g.,
the Commodore One).

---Joel Kolstad