[geofft]

I don't understand. Is your claim that ATMs are running Windows XP because Microsoft did get buried under a pile of ash in the early '00s and released no further OS upgrades, and therefore it would have been better for the ATM manufacturer to use an open-source OS because they, unlike Windows, survived to 2021?

Nobody in this thread is arguing that everything in the world is perfect. There are a lot of bad things in the world. (The fact that we haven't figured out a reliable, scalable way to develop major F/OSS projects without the backing of companies that either sell proprietary software or do far worse things is certainly one of them!)

The specific argument in this subthread is about whether it's okay to build your business on proprietary software or whether there's too much of a risk that the vendor will stop producing updates. If they aren't interested in updates when they actually happened, then clearly this wasn't a concern for them.

(Also, have you never seen people running extremely out-of-date versions of F/OSS operating systems?)

[adev_]

> The specific argument in this subthread is about whether it's okay to build your business on proprietary software or whether there's too much of a risk that the vendor will stop producing updates

It has everything to do with that and I think it's a way too narrow view.

In this case Microsoft indeed did not go bankrupt. They did however stopped to provide updates to solution "Windows XP", without giving an alternative compatible on the same legacy hardware (the old ATM hardware).

And that illustrates perfectly the problem with proprietary ecosystem. You do NOT need your provider to bankrupt to put yourself in shit, you just need him to have interests diverging of your interests.

Because at the end, he is the one controlling your software stack, not you.

[DaiPlusPlus]

> They did however stopped to provide updates to solution "Windows XP", without giving an alternative compatible on the same legacy hardware (the old ATM hardware).

Hang on there… Microsoft never did stop making updates to Windows XP Embedded - they kept it on super-extended support as “Windows POSReady” (I think the pun was intentional…) and it’s replacement in “Windows IoT” is reasonable.

Your argument is valid only if ATM manufacturers were being missold XP Embedded by Microsoft on the basis that the support lifecycle of XP Embedded would outlive the ATM hardware - but I put it to you that is not the case. The support lifeycle of MS products is (surprisingly) well-documented and transparent - and to my knowledge (and saying that as a former blue-badge myself) MS has never represented XP Embedded (or other NT-family OSes) as being suitable for a 20+ year lifespan. The blame lies squarely with the systems-integrator who built the ATMs.