windows 3.1 is still alive

[Meelis13]

And it apparently caused one of Paris (France ofc) airports to black out for a day...

https://news.vice.com/article/windows-31-is-still-alive-and-it-just-killed-a-french-airport

*applauds*

[Alyxx Thorne]

... I am kinda speechless. I guess if it works, why fix it...

[Psychotic Ninja]

It is Friday the 13th after all...

 

Also, why haven't they upgraded their computers yet?

[rliant1864]

It is Friday the 13th after all...

 

Also, why haven't they upgraded their computers yet?

 

Pretty much as Alyxx put it, as long as it works they see no need to upgrade.

[Alyxx Thorne]

It is Friday the 13th after all...

 

Also, why haven't they upgraded their computers yet?

When it comes to very integrated systems like this, upgrading can be a huge hassle, since it's a lot more complicated than simply installing Windows 7. If they are using 3.1 it means that the software they use for the system probably wouldn't be compatible with anything else, and thus upgrading would require entirely new software and replacing their entire system.

 

Sometimes it's easier to just stick with what works.

[Jeb_CC]

When it comes to organisations and places like this, there are usually programs made by software developers for that specific organisation. I know at work, we have like... our computers... the OS's are almost completely different ones, just because of how differently it works. They run on a form of Windows XP but it's been like, heavily modified or something. As much as an OS and computer can be that is. Lots of certain commands run to make sure that everything is sorted upon booting of the system. You can restart the computer and expect it to be able boot up, load the specified cashier's account, connect to the right monitor, to the right printer, to connect to the database and network, load up the main program, and even keep the order that you had previously put in, to the exact point. So yeah, it's modified as all fuck. And it's way too big of a hassle to re-create that. It'd involve a lot of bug-testing. And organisations just can't afford silly things like constant computer failures. So why upgrade?

That turned out to be a mini rant, sorry. XD

[Alyxx Thorne]

When it comes to organisations and places like this, there are usually programs made by software developers for that specific organisation. I know at work, we have like... our computers... the OS's are almost completely different ones, just because of how differently it works. They run on a form of Windows XP but it's been like, heavily modified or something. As much as an OS and computer can be that is. Lots of certain commands run to make sure that everything is sorted upon booting of the system. You can restart the computer and expect it to be able boot up, load the specified cashier's account, connect to the right monitor, to the right printer, to connect to the database and network, load up the main program, and even keep the order that you had previously put in, to the exact point. So yeah, it's modified as all fuck. And it's way too big of a hassle to re-create that. It'd involve a lot of bug-testing. And organisations just can't afford silly things like constant computer failures. So why upgrade?

That turned out to be a mini rant, sorry. XD

Yep, exactly...

heck there are still some terminals running DOS based programs to this day.

[Binky The Rabbit]

A lot of ATMs and ticket gates at rail stations use Windows XP.

 

And aye, the amount of downtime necessary to upgrade the OSs is probably near-prohibitive.

[Vapymid]

Most big banks still run Fortran and Cobol programs on mainframes to this day...

 

The problem is that the systems outlive the people who know them. Once the original programmers retire or die, if the system breaks, the youngsters can't fix it

 

Mmm... Fortran'77... That was fun! Not as much fun as Macro Assembler, though

 

Regards

[Alyxx Thorne]

Most big banks still run Fortran and Cobol programs on mainframes to this day...

 

The problem is that the systems outlive the people who know them. Once the original programmers retire or die, if the system breaks, the youngsters can't fix it

 

Mmm... Fortran'77... That was fun! Not as much fun as Macro Assembler, though

 

Regards

Yeah, so any new technicians need special training to fix them.