this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 110 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Less funny when you realize it's mostly banks, government agencies, and militaries still using it.

[–] EuroNutellaMan 61 points 9 months ago (5 children)

I'd say more likely it's labs, hospitals, and other scientific stuff where you have to deal with old instruments cause lack of money. I'm fairly certain the military uses some other OS, I believe NATO uses Solaris for example.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago

Also that machine only works under very specific circumstances, so you fear changing anything in case your entire protocol breaks and you have to start from scratch.

[–] Ross_audio 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Windows for Submarines"

It's XP for Vanguard subs. I really hope none of them provide any telemetry for these stats though.

[–] EuroNutellaMan 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

doubt they're connected to the internet. In fact I'd wager 99% of shit running windows XP is not connected to the internet (and shouldn't be)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

if it's not connected to the Internet, it won't show up in the stats

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

You know there's other ways to do these kinds of estimates, right?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

As a former banker I can tell you that most ATMs run Windows NT 4.0.

However since the network is completely clamped down and the OS boots via network as well (no hard drives in ATMs), they are pretty secure.

I've also indeed seen some Windows XP terminals in use just lately - one in fact in a hospital my current company collaborates with - but it's isolated and used to run some sequencer that was never ported to a 64 bit architecture, and apparently doesn't run in compatibility mode either.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Also Cobol mainframes.

[–] EuroNutellaMan 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah seems about right.

In my lab we have a spectrometer and an HPLC with computers that use windows XP.

Tho I noticed the HPLC one is connected to the internet, gonna have to ask them of that's necessary

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Tho I noticed the HPLC one is connected to the internet, gonna have to ask them of that's necessary

Someone had to download the Doom installer at some point, of course.

[–] Narauko 5 points 9 months ago

The current company that owns the old model installed in your hospital and sells the new version, bought the company that bought the company that made the version you have and can't update the firmware and code to work on a modern OS because all knowledgeable staff were lost in the buyouts.

The best they can do is sell you the new version that does the same thing your current working version does for $500,000.

Maybe they even have a new ecosystem that they want you to move to, because they don't make support/subscription revenue with the current stand alone server that moves the image or telemetry results from the machine to the viewing workstations and records database.

[–] FlyingSquid 2 points 9 months ago

If the U.S. military is anything like it was in the 90s, they may very well still be using Windows XP for all kinds of things. My mother-in-law ran an army reserve center through the late 90s and they were using DOS machines well into the Windows era because the army wouldn't update their computers.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (2 children)

And hospitals. Don't forget those.

[–] voodooattack 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Add industrial automation to the list.

[–] Trollception 2 points 9 months ago

I've seen Citrix used a lot in hospitals to host apps. Xp isn't used any longer since it's not supported.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I highly doubt it. I work for a large bank, and it's all W10/11 due to the need for continuous security patches/currency updates. Large banks don't mess around with EOL software that has a risk of vulnerabilities

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Yeap, on the workstations. In the atms and cash recyclers etc... got bad news for you....

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago

Large banks don’t mess around with EOL software that has a risk of vulnerabilities

Well, more complex modern software has an higher risk of (yet unknown) vulnerabilities.

[–] v81 10 points 9 months ago

And medical. Suppliers if CT, MRI and X-Ray gear are notorious for wanting to sell new gear and not providing software updates to work on new operating systems.

[–] MxM111 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Why do you think it’s less funny this way?

[–] chiliedogg 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Mainstream support ended 15 years ago. Extended security support ended 10 years ago. The last version to have any kind of update at all was their embedded OS version for things like cash registers, with the last security update 5 years ago.

So it's wildly insecure against any new attacks targeting an OS that's largely used by major corporations, governments, and medical facilities that are juicy targets for theft and ransomware attacks.

[–] Anticorp 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Because they stick with what works.

[–] EuroNutellaMan 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's moreso that they have some abandonware that only works on windows XP.

Windows XP itself is abandonware and you shouldn't use it in any other case, just use Linux if you don't like newer windows. You certainly aren't doing any photoshopping on XP nowadays so that's no concern.