could be worse. last year, deutsche bahn put up a job ad looking for a developer familiar with windows 3.1 in a networked environment to work on their fleet of high speed trains.
clippy is too modern for the ICE.
OBSTRUCTION DETECTED Abort, Retry, Fail?
Industrial embedded software is such a shitshow. Somehow Microsoft convinced companies that Windows is a great solution for controlling heavy machinery.
Tbh there’s no reports of that choice leading to actual accidents, but still you’re stuck with an old version of Windows with no possibility of upgrade.
On the plus side, you might also end up maintaining their own Linux distribution Linux4ICE (or the newer one called EULE) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
specifically i think it’s the speedometers that run windows for workgroups. it might be one of those controlled systems you can’t switch out without recertifying everything.
windows 3.1 in a networked environment
Sorry, what? Is this a thing where they beat the Y2K bug by just moving their clocks back for 30 years?
well the ice is like 35 years old i think
At this point, I’d feel much safer on a Win10 powered spaceship than a Win11 one. At least it isn’t “30% AI-generated”.
“The trajectory of your ship has changed because a critical windows update rebooted your ship during launch. You are now heading directly into the sun. Press the task bar for a list of AI suggested solutions.”
-Ground control
Look to the right end of the taskbar for the weather in your destination as well as the latest UV index
Opens Windows.
Air escapes. Asphyxiate.
Your rocket will ignite in fifteen minutes.
Actually, it’s looking more like six days.
No wait, thirty seconds.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
Windows is installing updates. Please don’t turn off your computer.
Windows 11 is a hot pile of garbage. Windows 10 was a “better” choice TBH
RHEL 7 would have been an even better choice, though.
And Rocky would be an even better choice.
I’m pretty sure you can’t get approval for a community-maintained OS without enterprise support to send people to the moon.
NASA are big fans of FOSS Linux.
I don’t like depending on corporations for anything and I’m not even a government agency or launching rockets.
RHEL 7 is also FOSS Linux, though.
“Hey uh, Mission Control? I’ve got two Outlooks and neither of them are working” A real quote from the mission btw
I believe it was the 2006/7 Seattle New Years or 4th of July fireworks that had been rigged up to orchestrate by “the latest microsoft technology” and the thing refused to execute and they rebooted the machine three times before someone just gave up and went and hit the firework triggers manually. Most people are pretty sure it was a wide beta version of Vista.
“T minus 10… 9… 8… 7…” System restarting for updates, do not power off… … … Yo, wanna back up all your shit? Click here to let us save a copy of all your shit to our servers! <Yes> <Ask me again tomorrow> Ehhh check that out, it’s time for your FREE upgrade to Windows 11! Click here to… wow, fucking rude. Alright. How about an office suite? Ya want an office suite?? Nevermind that Office is already installed, this one’s special! …what are you a fucking peasant or something? Alright fine, here’s access back to your peasant-ass operating system and an image of a cartoon cat wearing a wrestling belt for some fucking reason. 🖕
“…-T THE FUCK ARE DOING, I SAID ABORT DAMNIT! THE WIND PICKED UP, HARD! YOU CAN’T BRING THE FUEL TANK THROUGH THAT MUCH TURBU–” explodes
Doesn’t NASA use older tech because it’s more secure? I think I remember reading that somewhere.
Yes, they used to use Debian Oldoldstable on Thinkpads in the ISS. Don’t know if they still do.
I was always told it had to do with how long it took to get things approved. I remember when it was a big deal that the space shuttles were upgraded to 486s… in 2002.
it’s also because the smaller a transistor is, the more sensitive it is to cosmic rays. and there are a lot more cosmic rays in space than on earth. you can “rad-harden” them, but there are physical limits. as a result the most popular cpu architecture in space is the RAD750, based on the PowerPC 750 from 1997. the perseverance rover and the james webb space telescope are basically underclocked gamecubes, or those candy-colored imacs. like, perserverance runs at 133MHz and has 128MB of RAM.
I saw him typing in his pin code too. It was 3939.
brb hacking the moon mission
When watching the launch, I just imagined if a random fan was in charge, and it suddenly became a kerbal mission.
No fuel and orbiting for 400+ days? Jeb will be fine…
You know we’re sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn’t it?
It’s fine! Totally fine! Because they have Copilot.
Badumm tss
I’ll see myself out…
That is probably why Microsoft removed the BSOD, so that they can deny being responsible for the death of the astronauts.
All jokes aside, I imagine it is a heavily curated version of Windows with only the strict nescessary for operating the systems and multiple redundencies. I can’t imagine NASA risking a disaster while their budgets are being slashed.
But does it have an XBox controller?
Houston, I’ve dropped the stilus! Noise iiiiii
Eheeeeeh can I go get it? Noise iiiiii
Negative! That’s a negative young man! You shouldn’t have been playing on it during flight, you dad told you to put it away! You’re supposed to be there in the moment and enjoy the flight and to look back at planet earth as the pale blue ball. Now sit there and wait until the engine stops.
