Epic uptime achievement unlocked. Can you beat 16 years?

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.