They are not unfortunate. They are just poorly managed.

It never looked like Microsoft would support IE6 forever. You should always plan to upgrade your software or you will end up maintaining vintage hardware because it's the only thing that runs your vintage software.

Not that it's not fun to maintain old computers - I keep a collection of machines from the late 70's through mid-to-late 90's - but it's no fun if your business depends on them working reliably.

Computers get pretty temperamental in their teens.