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Windows 3.1 saves the day during CrowdStrike outage — Southwest Airlines scrapes by with archaic OS

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.

EleventhHour ,
@EleventhHour@lemmy.world avatar

Windows 3.1 didn’t have the BSOD. It just froze. I remember with Windows NT 4, when we first got the BSOD, being so grateful that Microsoft decided to actually tell us that our computer wasn’t going to recover from the error. Otherwise, we’d just be sitting there, waiting, hoping it would unfreeze itself.

It never did

TheReturnOfPEB ,

I think that NT 3.51 had a blue screen of death

qisope ,
@qisope@lemmy.world avatar

Or, for your consideration, could it perhaps be because they don’t use crowdstrike?

KairuByte ,
@KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Yeah, what? 3.1 not getting updates has nothing to do with this. Software developed for 3.1 can still be updated. This article is just silly.

xantoxis ,

My Linux servers weren’t affected either. I think it’s because of Windows 3.1

werefreeatlast ,

This software is shit Bob! What should we do Bob?

Well Bob, we should find something compatible with shit!

Bob, I think I got it! I got this other shit software!

Genius Bob! Just Genius! 😎

cmnybo ,

Holy crap, they are serious. I though I was on !programmer_humor 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 ,

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

phoneymouse ,

The fact that they’re running 3.1 is not something to be proud of. They’re probably extremely vulnerable to any other attack.

SpaceNoodle ,

Quite the opposite.

Jagger2097 ,

Please explain. I’ll make 🍿

RustyHeater ,

Microsoft’s Wolverine for the TCP stack was not available until Windows 3.11. An argument could be made that these systems are defacto air-gapped as they cannot communicate with modern networking.

Blaster_M ,

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

SpaceNoodle ,

No, it doesn’t, because Corel didn’t buy WordPerfect until 1996.

tux0r ,
@tux0r@feddit.org avatar

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

floofloof ,

One X user suggested that the company switch to Windows XP—it’s also no longer updated, and it can run Windows 3.1 applications via compatibility mode.

Maybe that was a joke, but if anything that would reduce their security. Windows 3.1 and 95 are old enough that they can’t even run most stuff from the last two and a half decades, which probably protects them. XP is just new enough, and plenty old enough, to be very risky.

jabathekek ,
@jabathekek@sopuli.xyz avatar

Reminds me of an episode of Ghost in the Shell where a hacker in a hyper-advanced cyberised society was using floppy disks as a storage medium because they were so slow.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

One of the background details I liked in Ghost in the Shell was how the high-end data analysts and programmers employed by the government did their work using cybernetic hands whose fingers could separate into dozens of smaller fingers to let them operate keyboards extremely quickly. They didn't use direct cybernetic links because that was a security vulnerability for their brains.

0x0 ,

They’re also so old they were compiled without any modern instrumentation, e.g. stack canaries.

notannpc ,

Maybe don’t pay a company to install a rootkit on your critical infrastructure?

henfredemars ,

Just open up your critical infrastructure to the public Internet and you’ll get rootkits for free.

yggstyle ,

Best feature windows 3.1 has:

… it doesn’t pop up message telling you to upgrade to windows 11.

Entropywins ,

Shhh don’t give microsoft any ideas

SkaveRat ,

or add shitty AI tools without asking.

or constntly nag you to use their cloud storage

Dave ,
@Dave@lemmy.nz avatar

My windows 10 PC is telling me I don’t qualify for a free Windows 11 update, so I’ve got that going for me.

Lost_My_Mind ,

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

MrSoup ,

Why not Quick and Dirty Operating System?

radivojevic ,

This is both awesome and frightening for many reasons

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