this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
78 points (93.3% liked)

Technology

77649 readers
2008 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
78
Windows 3.1 saves the day during CrowdStrike outage — Southwest Airlines scrapes by with archaic OS (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 1 year ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world
85 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

(page 2) 36 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Blaster_M@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the "can't get a Word Document macro virus because I use the Corel WordPerfect Document type" kind of energy.

[–] tux0r@feddit.org 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, nothing's wrong with WordPerfect, honestly. Still better than Word.

[–] areyouevenreal@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does it run on Wine?

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holy crap, they are serious. I though I was on !programmer_humor@programming.dev for a minute. I sure hope none of those computers are connected to the internet. There's a massive number of vulnerabilities in windows 3.1 and windows 95.

[–] krdo@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows 3.1 doesn't even come with a TCP/IP stack. It's actually pretty safe.

[–] 5redie8@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Bold of you to assume any of the "experts" writing about this know what a TCP/IP stack is

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Windows 3.1? You fancy kids, and your modern operating systems! What's wrong with Windows 1.0???

[–] MrSoup@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

Why not Quick and Dirty Operating System?

[–] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And they can play JezzBall.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 year ago

windows downfall began when they removed jezzball. prove me wrong.

[–] btaf45@lemmy.world -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

Everything we know about this is that it was a disaster waiting to happen. Why the heck aren't the airlines using Linux instead of Windows for critical stuff? How about something like...Chrome OS? Then you don't need CrowdStrike because your OS is already secure because of the built in VMs and because it is Linux. Pay google for support and no updates unless there is something critical.

edit: Lots of Microsoft lovers here lol. And missing the point which is that using the most well known consumer OS for critical stuff like keeping flights going is begging for trouble.

load more comments (11 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›