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Windows 3.1 saves the day during CrowdStrike outage — Southwest Airlines scrapes by with archaic OS (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 4 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Southwest Airlines, the fourth largest airline in the US, is seemingly unaffected by the problematic CrowdStrike update that caused millions of computers to BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) because it used Windows 3.1. The CrowdStrike issue disrupted operations globally after a faulty update caused newer computers to freeze and stop working, with many prominent institutions, including airports and almost all US airlines, including United, Delta, and American Airlines, needing to stop flights.

Windows 3.1, launched in 1992, is likely not getting any updates. So, when CrowdStrike pushed the faulty update to all its customers, Southwest wasn’t affected (because it didn’t receive an update to begin with).

The airlines affected by the CrowdStrike update had to ground their fleets because many of their background systems refused to operate. These systems could include pilot and fleet scheduling, maintenance records, ticketing, etc. Thankfully, the lousy update did not affect aircraft systems, ensuring that everything airborne remained safe and were always in control of their pilots.

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[–] SSJMarx@lemm.ee 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The interesting thing here is wondering why they never upgraded. Perhaps managing flights digitally just hasn't changed much since the early nineties and they never needed anything else?

[–] irinotecan@lemmy.world 18 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Likely the same reason why banks and other financial institutions still use COBOL and Fortran code written in the 1970s or earlier on archaic mainframes: Top management decided at some point it was too expensive to rewrite everything from scratch in some modern language for modern hardware, so they just limp along with what they have.

A 16-bit app written for Windows 3.x would almost certainly have to be rewritten for modern, 64-bit Windows.

[–] frunch@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

While i figured the cost would be a factor, i just figured they were sticking with a system that works. If it serves their needs effectively and reliably, why change it?

Edit: answered my own question--it doesn't work anymore, and that's why it needs to be changed

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/southwest-cancels-thousands-more-us-flights-weather-stays-bitter-2022-12-27/

[–] Petter1@lemm.ee 1 points 4 months ago

😂👌🏻nice edit