this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
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Windows 3.1 saves the day during CrowdStrike outage — Southwest Airlines scrapes by with archaic OS (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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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[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I'm guessing Crowdstrike issues a lot more Windows updates than Linux updates?

Not really. Linux is used for critical servers everywhere. No reason to update it less often.

It's not that Linux can't have security problems. I still remember the very first internet virus in 1987 that traveled thru Unix machines. But Windows is the worst OS for critical systems precisely because it is the most common OS. Anything is better than windows. Linux, MacOS, or even an old IBM mainframe OS and those awful tn3270 terminals. Also, Chrome OS in particular has VMs instead of other VMs. It really is designed to be much more secure than Windows

This isn't a hacking attempt. It's not a security breach. None of the "Windows is more common" stuff is actually valid in this case. The fact it's not actually true is even more funny. When it comes to servers and smartphones, and the total number of devices in general, Linux outnumbers Windows. Linux isn't actually niche in the slightest, only purists running Arch or Ubuntu think that because they ignore any Linux they don't like, like Android.

You also don't understand anything about ChromeOS security either. They don't use VMs for system security. Early Chromebooks actually had virtualization disabled! Sandboxing and virtualization aren't the same thing. The reason it's secure is largely because it can't do anything, it uses an a/b root system, and it has secure boot by default. It's not that fancy anymore.

Chrome the web browser also has sandboxing on Windows, and modern Windows uses secure boot. Edge and Chrome have the same foundation btw. What it's missing is the immutable a/b root system, and the fact Windows allows running arbitrary executables when ChromeOS doesn't. There are actually tools for making Windows immutable, and with group policy or things like S mode you can restrict who can run what executables. Meaning with the right settings it's almost as secure as ChromeOS. Even more funny Windows actually does use virtualization based security. So you have that backwards too.

Stop talking about shit you don't understand and learn about it instead.