Not exactly bleeding edge

[haraldo]

French airport suffers a downtime for using antiquated Windows 3.1

In France Windows 3.1 Is Still Alive and it brought French Airport to a standstill

"The tools used by Aéroports de Paris controllers run on four different operating systems, that are all between 10 and 20 years old," explained Alexandre Fiacre, the secretary general of France’s UNSA-IESSA air traffic controller union. ADP is the company that runs both Orly and Paris’ other airport, Charles de Gaulle, one of the busiest in the world.

And things run incredibly fast in France: Equipment will be upgraded by 2017.

http://www.techworm.net/2015/11/french-airport-suffers-a-downtime-for-using-antiquated-windows-3-1.html

 

[AJM]

On a positive note, they avoided a lot of really bad Windows versions over the years.

 

[Swerd]

The French can be stubborn on language matters. If Microsoft had named it Les Fenêtres 3.1, they would have readily accepted the updates.

 

[AJM]

I hope they are ready for a real culture shock when they open Win 10.

 

[Hobbit]

French airport suffers a downtime for using antiquated Windows 3.1

In France Windows 3.1 Is Still Alive and it brought French Airport to a standstill

"The tools used by Aéroports de Paris controllers run on four different operating systems, that are all between 10 and 20 years old," explained Alexandre Fiacre, the secretary general of France’s UNSA-IESSA air traffic controller union. ADP is the company that runs both Orly and Paris’ other airport, Charles de Gaulle, one of the busiest in the world.

And things run incredibly fast in France: Equipment will be upgraded by 2017.

http://www.techworm.net/2015/11/french-airport-suffers-a-downtime-for-using-antiquated-windows-3-1.html

My first thought was it may have nothing to do with Windows 3.1 and more to do with a software package they're running. Which after I clicked on the article appears to be the case. While I'm no expert on this type of system, there may be hardware associated with the software and therefore not an easy path to upgrade to newer operating systems without upgrading the hardware too. Or they're running an ancient version of DECOR that's incompatible with newer operating systems.

Being someone that tests electronic components, this isn't an uncommon problem. I have ATE's (automated test equipment) that run on operating systems going back to Windows 98 and everything in between including one system running Solaris on an ultrasparc. Some of these don't have a path to upgrade the operating system, some do but you'll have to rewrite/rework your old code, and others just have a plain out exorbitant price to get there. ATE's are very expensive so we're not going to throw them away just to upgrade the operating system.

Having said that, you'd think that whatever overall system they're using would have been completely upgraded by now. I can't imagine these airports can't afford it..

 

[Chu Gai]

I've got a copy of Windows 386 and somewhere a copy of Word 1.0

 

[slipperybidness]

My first thought was it may have nothing to do with Windows 3.1 and more to do with a software package they're running. Which after I clicked on the article appears to be the case. While I'm no expert on this type of system, there may be hardware associated with the software and therefore not an easy path to upgrade to newer operating systems without upgrading the hardware too. Or they're running an ancient version of DECOR that's incompatible with newer operating systems.

Being someone that tests electronic components, this isn't an uncommon problem. I have ATE's (automated test equipment) that run on operating systems going back to Windows 98 and everything in between including one system running Solaris on an ultrasparc. Some of these don't have a path to upgrade the operating system, some do but you'll have to rewrite/rework your old code, and others just have a plain out exorbitant price to get there. ATE's are very expensive so we're not going to throw them away just to upgrade the operating system.

Having said that, you'd think that whatever overall system they're using would have been completely upgraded by now. I can't imagine these airports can't afford it..

+1

I have a few DOS computers running for the same reasons!

These tasks are now handled much better and simpler via PLCs, but I'm stuck with DOS!

Luckily, I'm old enough to remember using DOS as a kid!