Hi Jon, welcome to Hacker News. (I'm a moderator here.) I'm sorry that you felt singled out for ridicule—the comment I think you're referring to was indeed dismissive and supercilious and exactly the sort that we don't want on this site. Most of us are fascinated by computing history and have deep respect for the contributions of others.

I'm going to open that old thread so you can respond in it. But I also hope you'll stick around and give the better side of this community a chance to show itself. Getting newer software to run on older hardware is actually a common theme here and some of those posts are among the most interesting. It sounds like we have a lot to learn from you, so please feel welcome.