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Top Ten worst uses for Windows
Blogger Richard Stiennon's top ten worst uses for Windows.
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6. Building controls
Listen, we all have enough trouble with heat, water, cooling, and electrical outages. Why make them worse with Windows? Luckily no one would ever rely on Windows to control elevators right? Think again. Read the Elevator Management System product document from Otis. Not only do you need Windows 2000 or XP for the Main Station but is accessed via a web browser from anywhere on the Internet! Talk about a hacker's dream.
7. Manufacturing controls
Now we are getting to lala land. Imagine having your manufacturing plant rely on Windows. If you are the plant manager how do you explain to your CEO that your plant is down because of a virus? But I am here to tell you that Windows on machine controllers is becoming standard. Crazy, but the truth.
8. ATMs
I was once treated to an evening on Steve Forbe's yacht by ISS. It was an event for industry analysts and ISS (now IBM) took the opportunity to demonstrate the end point security they were working on. One of the examples they showed us was a NEC ATM application. I could not concentrate on their add-on solution because I was so astonished that NEC was deploying cash machines all over the world running Windows. Who at the banks makes these decisions? Don't the RFPs have a section in them labeled: "demonstration of hardened operating system"? I guess not at Citibank who it turns out succumbed to an attack on their network where account numbers and PIN codes were stolen.
9. SCADA Networks
Imagine taking the largest networks for electrical transmission, oil and gas pipe lines and even vast underground pipes for transporting gasoline, and controlling them via Windows. Well it is happening. SCADA, the protocol for controlling critical infrastructure has moved to IP and end point pumps, switches and management stations are all running Windows. How many of those systems harbor Trojan horses today? How many are ready to experience memory leakage that forces an unscheduled re-boot and sets off an uncontrolled ripple throughout the critical infrastructure? Wait and see.
10. Medical equipment
I really begin to doubt the intelligence of engineers today whenever I encounter a medical equipment manufacturer that has made the switch to Windows from Unix. First of all, let me point out that the FDA requires a lengthy paper trail to be filed every time medical equipment like dialysis machines, imaging equipment, radiation therapy, and biological monitors are upgraded. That includes being patched for bugs and security updates every patch Tuesday if they are running Windows. You know what that means. They are not updated. Therefore they are vulnerable. Critical life support systems throughout a hospital are vulnerable to viruses and worms. They could fail because of the lack of foresight of the manufacturers. People could lose their lives.
So, what's my point? I believe that "Windows Everywhere" is a strategy that benefits only Microsoft. Everyone else should pick the best overall solution for their application. Need to run DNS? Why use a big hairy operating system like Windows for such a simple yet critical application? Look for stripped down hardened solutions for mission critical apps. Use Windows for must-have office productivity suites, gaming if you have to, but don't build Windows into your operations if you do not have to. Are car manufacturers really considering Vista for autos? Is NASA putting Windows in the specifications for the STS replacement? I hope not but I have been surprised before.
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Comments
CE is less than impressive.
Actually I've found a lot more embedded devices running embedded linux than I have Windows CE or XP embedded. You just hear a lot less about them because most people don't advertise the fact. You also won't see evidence of failure as blatant as the BSoD.
Next to QNX and vxWorks, Linux is the most robust and versatile mainstream embedded OS out there. Windows CE is primarily relegated to smartphones these days and it even sucks in that area. Windows CE is also horrible for realtime applications.
If I had to bet my life on a device just working, I'd choose vxWorks or QNX. For other situations embedded Linux would be my second choice. Embedded Linux is far more popular for network appliances than Windows CE will ever be. XP embedded sees a lot of use in kiosks and ATM's. That's about it.
I've seen a lot of Diebold Windows XP based ATM's in recent years though. Diebold's reputation has been seriously scarred because of their horrible Windows-based voting machines though.
I'd like to see someone name ONE example of a mission-critical NASA sattelite or probe running Windows CE.
Anyone who uses any Windows OS (CE or XP) for mission critical apps where lives or massive amounts of product can be put in jeopardy is seriously asking for it. They are paying twice as much for a bloated and inferior product. In fact DOS would be a better bet for embedded apps such as an ATM machine or voting machine.
And yes, DOS lives on in many embedded devices.
And BTW, MS Office is NOT the end-all be-all. I've quite successfully migrated my 200-user network to OpenOffice without a hitch. Outlook/Exchange can be replaced with a good web-based PIM/collaboration package or Lotus Notes quite easily. Or groupwise....or evolution and one of the various open source server packages. Or even more drastic, MacOS X and MacOS X Server with the iCal server.
You have choices, you're not locked in. You always had choices. You just made poor ones or your CIO made them for you and the industry has suffered a horrible backslide for the last decade with everyone losing faith in computers in general. NT was a bad path to take from the start.
I was with you!
I was with you for a minute till you made the statement that Windows CE was open source.
Windows CE is not open source. It's shared source. There is a difference.
The big difference is that not everyone can get access to the source. Only registered developers approved by MS and OEM's approved by MS can see the source. It’s not "Open" to anyone else. And that is only kernel source. The rest of CE is not even that open.
It even says it in the article that you linked:
"Microsoft's shared source license currently is not, however, approved by the Open Source Initiative as an open-source license."
Also a lot of the devices that were listed in this article are running on standard windows and not CE. Because CE is pricy to use in devices. You have to pay runtime royalties depending on how the app uses CE.
I also do not think that people would use Windows CE for satellites as it is designed more for people who need a GUI in a real-time OS. I am sure in orbit you don’t need access to a GUI.
I would need to see more proof on that one.
FUD
This is FUD. It's pretty obvious that things like medical equipment, building controls, etc, are NOT running standard Windows XP (2000, NT, or any desktop OS), but the very well designed Windows CE. In the embedded real-time OS world, you basically have Vxworks, Windows CE, and a handful of others, and Windows CE is a viable, and yes, stable option.
Windows CE is also "open source"
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2632317407.html
I'm sorry, but Windows CE is stable, and secure. As to your last points, Windows CE is frequently used on Satellites produced by companies to be launched into orbit.
Re: In Windows defense, sort of.
First and foremost - I question that Windows is the easiest and most familiar operating system available. No doubt it is the most widespread consumer OS. And the statement that most people don't have a clue what they are doing with OS X was thrown out as a casual aside with no basis in reality.
I'm sure there are some uses in embedded environments where Windows is the right tool for the job. It seems like overkill in the applications mentioned in the article. There are a plethora of tiny, real time operating systems that would seem much better suited to the task (tinyOS, VxWorks, QNX).
In Windows defense, sort of.
Okay, first and foremost- Windows is without question the easiest and most familiar operating system available- and it's been that way for over 10 years now. (honestly, most people really don't have a clue what the hell they are doing with OSX when they try and use it)
Additionally, while Windows is the most widely used operating system- it is also the biggest, most supported, and versatile development platform. Thus you can make all kinds of things run on it / communicate with it, without having to completely engineer some embedded system that can only accomplish a single task. (That kind of thing is expensive btw...)
Lastly, not really in 'defense' of Windows- but bottom line, no excuses: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHATSOEVER that critical infrastructure should EVER interface with a public network. Our power grids and oil pipelines, etc... should generally be safe from virii / malicious users, as long as we are serious about restricting access to such systems...
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