that is true regardless of the original platform

Yes, that's correct. However, arguments made by different people would have you believe that someone (using their analogy) driving a 2002 car that's no longer made, will be able to drive it so long as it works.

I even know of a case where someone is moving .NET code to Java - I wonder if they'll like what they'll get in the end, but yes, it can happen to any platform.