Anything from the 70's and the early 80's will work.
Some VAX computers (11/780 series) used 8" floppy to read the boot loader. OSes like VAX/VMS, RSX-11, RT-11 will read/write them. I also suspect that any old IBM computer/OS will read them.

The main problem is that hardware was more proprietary in those days. You cannot just plug in any 8" drive.
File systems and formatting were different between OSes and vendors, so you need the OS that wrote it to be able to read it (or an emulator).

ITIL is a recommendation. As you mention, implemeting ITIL by the letter is simply wrong. But inventing a system from scratch is beyond the capability of most organizations (believe me, our company tried and failed miserably befoe adopting ITIL). Why should everybody reinvent the wheel?

We use ITIL, and the CM part definitely has saved us from major issues.
And some of the problems we see would have been avoided if the teams responsible had followed the CM process.
The more complex the organization is (we are a truly global company), the more you need structure.

If our company is typical, we update firmware only when needed.
Most servers keep most of the firmware for the entire lifespan.
An exception would be if the OS is upgraded (but even that is unusual).
A common exception is the HP ILO controllers. One reason we sometimes update them is that there are real improvements, ad it does not require downtime.

Our finance people would definitely point out that a difference between $882 and $6155 is quite significant unless you really need the virtualization rights.

The way it works where I live (small European country), sometime in March I get a letter with the number the tax office have been given, and a calculation of much I owe or are due. If all the numbers are correct, I do nothing, as doing nothing by May 1st is defined as accepting the numbers. If there are deductions missing, I log in to the tax authorities web site and add the missing numbers (can also be done on paper). It also lets me upload documentation in the form of scanned documents. If originals are required, they are sent by mail.
After the tax office have redone the tax, I will then get a new letter with the recalculated tax.
Pretty simple, and works nice. No taxes needed to change to accomodate the new system.

Two errors her:

WIndows 2012 R2 Standard is the server version of Windows 8.1. Windows Server 2012 is the server version of Windows 8.

Windows 2012 (and 2012 R2) Datacenter is not a version, it is a licensing option for virtual environments. The Standard version contains all functionality. The price for the Standard version is $882 (list - two physical CPUs).

If one or two engineers can change a part as is claimed here, and the part actually get installed in the car without any warning flags are reaised, the control systems at GM are obviously not up to a minimal standard.
The design would need to go through several stages before it reaches the car. Changes in a part require changes in the parts production. Can one or two engineers engineer authorize that? Me thinks not.
And publishing the names of the engineers just show how spineless the management are.

I smell a scapegoat here.

I just pointed out that the price is not high for what you get. If you do not like it... well, there are still Linux. Lots of them.

You are correc that the customer of the end product may not have much of a choice.
However, the manufacturer of the equiment had a choice. A real choice.
So Microsoft did not (and have never had) a monopoly on the operating system in any market. This means the story we are discussing is a waste of time as a court case. Probably an interesting case for law students, though.

I can still use the sound editing software (same binaries) I used on Windows 2000 and which was written pre XP.
I have used it on both Windows Vista and 7 (Cool Edit 2000 and Cool Edit Pro - not available anymore).
So new sound drivers do not break the end user software.
Missing DRM support in the driver only means you cannot use protected media. Very little business software (pretty much none) use multimedia.