Windows 3.1 Took Down A French Airport

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This is not a headline from 1992. +1 internets for the name of the airport. Orly? :D

DECOR, which is used in takeoff and landings, runs on Windows 3.1, an operating system that came onto the market in 1992. Hardly state-of-the-art technology. One of the highlights of Windows 3.1 when it came out was the inclusion of Minesweeper — a single-player video game that was responsible for wasting hours of PC owners' time in the early '90s.
 
They've got one system on Unix, one on Win 3.1, and a third on Windows XP. I'm also going to assume these aren't connected to the internet in any way.

They should put them all on Unix. It's the most stable and the only one of the 3 that's still supported...assuming their software will run on later kernel revisions.
 
Most of the time when you see that people are using Windows 3.1 it is because it is a hardware system with the 'Embedded' version of the OS, so while it is easy to make fun of people for running a 30 year old operating systems, the problem is that it is major hardware upgrade not a software upgrade.
 
Most of the time when you see that people are using Windows 3.1 it is because it is a hardware system with the 'Embedded' version of the OS, so while it is easy to make fun of people for running a 30 year old operating systems, the problem is that it is major hardware upgrade not a software upgrade.

When the rest of the 1st world countries are no longer running on it, your reason there falls apart. There are newer options, they just refuse to spend money to upgrade. No different than anyone else that stays with old hardware and software.
 
True. We have some pretty ancient stuff where I work too. To upgrade to a newer system would mean going to an entirely new system hardware, networks, etc. from niche industrial supply companies. Which in turn means around 5 million for one particular system that we're planning to update in the near future. None of our stuff is Win 3.1 old, but still pretty damned old in some cases. We have an NT4.0 machine for example. (but hey, it works for what it's doing, needs minimal maintenance, and the alternative is basically a huge project with big downtime involved, hefty price tag, etc.) It will all be done eventually, but all of these updates need to be pretty carefully triaged and planned out here.
 
Mine sweep some, but mostly it was that pinball game that came with it.
 
Lame for them not upgrading sooner.

That being said, we have an old Mazak machine where I work and I am in the process of upgrading it so it has usb support as well as not using the old proprietary 3.5" floppy format. The only interface it has is a serial port.

The PC software that originally came with it required DOS 3.3 to run.

We also have an older HAAS mill that I am converting to usb from 3.5" floppy. But at least that one used normal (FAT) format for the disks.

But hey, for stuff like this it is not worth it to replace when it works just fine.
 
Most of the time when you see that people are using Windows 3.1 it is because it is a hardware system with the 'Embedded' version of the OS, so while it is easy to make fun of people for running a 30 year old operating systems, the problem is that it is major hardware upgrade not a software upgrade.

When the rest of the 1st world countries are no longer running on it, your reason there falls apart. There are newer options, they just refuse to spend money to upgrade. No different than anyone else that stays with old hardware and software.

It is worth saying i the embedded market 3.11 for workgroups was sold until November 2008.

Software running on old systems is pretty common in both the embedded market and in some very expensive systems which I'm guessing the software was. Hell look how many places have ibm i system stuff that was written on the as/400 or one of the 30 systems. I have a client who's main app was originally written in 82 on a system 32 or 34. They deployed it on a system 36 in the 80's and it was then moved to an as/400 running the system 36 os(ssp). In the last few years they were worried about the age of the as/400 even though IBM supported it still. The same software is now running off a power 7 system. The cost of replacing the software would be extremely expensive(that power 7 with the consultants to get the software running right on it was pretty expensive as it is).

Open VMS is still supported because of the cost to move things away from it.

The computer that runs the front end is cheap. In some cases the hardware that it connects to it could be millions to replace.

This is the same in a lot of fields. A bunch cnc machines still run some version of xp embedded on them(or now windows 7 embedded). Those machines could still be in use 30 years from now. I know I was dealing with linking computer cnc machines from the 70's, some with tape readers on them, a few years ago. Those machines were still worth 30 to 40 grand and for what the client needed they would work fine. A new machine would be 250 grand.

You would be surprised at how many buildings are probability running windows 95 and 98 machines for their hvac systems. You had that one school system in the news at the beginning of the year for running a Commodore Amiga for the hvac system at like 19 schools. They figured the cost of replacing that system was something like 2 million dollars. At that point finding spare parts on ebay and stocking up for a few grand makes a lot of sense. I know of a client that has a system running off dos. The replacement system is like 40 grand. If that dos box dies I'll be building a replacement.

You also will find a bunch of phone systems still running off 486 and pentium 1 systems. It has been a few years since I've look at any but I bet a bunch of gas stations registers are still running off systems from that time as well. I remember swapping some 386 boards for 486 ones like 10 years ago.
 
It is worth saying i the embedded market 3.11 for workgroups was sold until November 2008.

Software running on old systems is pretty common in both the embedded market and in some very expensive systems which I'm guessing the software was. Hell look how many places have ibm i system stuff that was written on the as/400 or one of the 30 systems. I have a client who's main app was originally written in 82 on a system 32 or 34. They deployed it on a system 36 in the 80's and it was then moved to an as/400 running the system 36 os(ssp). In the last few years they were worried about the age of the as/400 even though IBM supported it still. The same software is now running off a power 7 system. The cost of replacing the software would be extremely expensive(that power 7 with the consultants to get the software running right on it was pretty expensive as it is).

Open VMS is still supported because of the cost to move things away from it.

The computer that runs the front end is cheap. In some cases the hardware that it connects to it could be millions to replace.

This is the same in a lot of fields. A bunch cnc machines still run some version of xp embedded on them(or now windows 7 embedded). Those machines could still be in use 30 years from now. I know I was dealing with linking computer cnc machines from the 70's, some with tape readers on them, a few years ago. Those machines were still worth 30 to 40 grand and for what the client needed they would work fine. A new machine would be 250 grand.

You would be surprised at how many buildings are probability running windows 95 and 98 machines for their hvac systems. You had that one school system in the news at the beginning of the year for running a Commodore Amiga for the hvac system at like 19 schools. They figured the cost of replacing that system was something like 2 million dollars. At that point finding spare parts on ebay and stocking up for a few grand makes a lot of sense. I know of a client that has a system running off dos. The replacement system is like 40 grand. If that dos box dies I'll be building a replacement.

You also will find a bunch of phone systems still running off 486 and pentium 1 systems. It has been a few years since I've look at any but I bet a bunch of gas stations registers are still running off systems from that time as well. I remember swapping some 386 boards for 486 ones like 10 years ago.

Even at billion dollar companies that built-out new facilities in the last 10 years I've seen really really old hardware come out of as they're slowly updating.

The machinery is understandable, that has insane life especially quality equip. I have two machines with DROs from the 70s or 80s... some graph paper, a pencil, and these things will serve my home shop for ages.
 
It is working, no reason to replace it yet. Besides, I bet they are working out on a plan to replace it anyways. Stability and longevity trumps modern any day of the week.
 
I highee dout that this would have been a reg ver Windows 3.1 I beat it was Windows NT 3.1 and hardware is very pick to support and it had diff CPU support types like Alpha, MIPS as well
 
You would be surprised at how many buildings are probability running windows 95 and 98 machines for their hvac systems. You had that one school system in the news at the beginning of the year for running a Commodore Amiga for the hvac system at like 19 schools. They figured the cost of replacing that system was something like 2 million dollars. At that point finding spare parts on ebay and stocking up for a few grand makes a lot of sense. I know of a client that has a system running off dos. The replacement system is like 40 grand. If that dos box dies I'll be building a replacement.

As someone who works in the HVAC controls industry, there is some lag on new tech. When we deploy our controls on new and retrofit projects, the main front-end workstation (and client stations as required) and field maintenance laptops (again, as required) are running Windows 7. There are still some reports of the front-end software not fully playing well with Windows8/8.1 (but shows improvements) and Windows 10 is definitely off-limits for now.

The programming environment for the HVAC controllers relies on a plug-in for Visio. Only recently do I think the plug-in now works on Visio 2013 (my new work laptop has Office 2013 for everything but Visio which is the 2010 edition).

This is even with the controls manufacturer getting ready to EOL the current front-end software in favor of a new front-end which has been out for only about a year, AND requires a 64-bit OS to function. The trade-off is the new interface and how it handles multiple concurrent users.

One thing to take away from this is that there is an expectation for the system as a whole to function for many years before the thought of upgrades/replacement. This is no different than other industries.
 
I bet there are an octopus of cables plugged into cards on those 3.1 system and have no easy replacement on modern systems. Sadly, that's pretty common due to the costs and risks of replacing software and hardware on "working" systems.
 
It is worth saying i the embedded market 3.11 for workgroups was sold until November 2008.

Software running on old systems is pretty common in both the embedded market and in some very expensive systems which I'm guessing the software was. Hell look how many places have ibm i system stuff that was written on the as/400 or one of the 30 systems. I have a client who's main app was originally written in 82 on a system 32 or 34. They deployed it on a system 36 in the 80's and it was then moved to an as/400 running the system 36 os(ssp). In the last few years they were worried about the age of the as/400 even though IBM supported it still. The same software is now running off a power 7 system. The cost of replacing the software would be extremely expensive(that power 7 with the consultants to get the software running right on it was pretty expensive as it is).

Open VMS is still supported because of the cost to move things away from it.

The computer that runs the front end is cheap. In some cases the hardware that it connects to it could be millions to replace.

This is the same in a lot of fields. A bunch cnc machines still run some version of xp embedded on them(or now windows 7 embedded). Those machines could still be in use 30 years from now. I know I was dealing with linking computer cnc machines from the 70's, some with tape readers on them, a few years ago. Those machines were still worth 30 to 40 grand and for what the client needed they would work fine. A new machine would be 250 grand.

You would be surprised at how many buildings are probability running windows 95 and 98 machines for their hvac systems. You had that one school system in the news at the beginning of the year for running a Commodore Amiga for the hvac system at like 19 schools. They figured the cost of replacing that system was something like 2 million dollars. At that point finding spare parts on ebay and stocking up for a few grand makes a lot of sense. I know of a client that has a system running off dos. The replacement system is like 40 grand. If that dos box dies I'll be building a replacement.

You also will find a bunch of phone systems still running off 486 and pentium 1 systems. It has been a few years since I've look at any but I bet a bunch of gas stations registers are still running off systems from that time as well. I remember swapping some 386 boards for 486 ones like 10 years ago.

I fully understand that. We just replaced a OpenVMS system 2 years ago.

However that doesn't change that fact that here ARE options out there.

When it comes down to it, there choice is cost of replacing vs damage if the system dies. Just like the cost of network security vs the cost of paying for result of breach.

Same is true here, is it more important that you have working computer systems and are able to keep plans in the air. Or is the cost of not upgrading ok when 1 computer grounds all flights into or out of your airport for hours. But that choice doesn't remove the fact that there are options out there. That is what my comment was in regards to. The statement that this was probably a system that has zero other options than using old technology like that.
 
A lot of time software providers use Microsoft scrictly for the base system operation. All the DMA's and IRQ's and other such non-sense are already taken care for very little out of pocket expense (a windows license). You also get standardized api's which makes using off the shelf programmers easier.
 
I remember working on a printer system for a company last year sometime and the printer was industrial. It was as big as a warehouse this printer. It was also hooked to a computer which had windows 98. Expensive cost of the hardware limits some places from upgrading a lot of times ;)
 
I don't think this has remotely anything to do with it, but I find the amount of stuff the French (and the world) had to deal with this weekend is probably heart wrenching.
 
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