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At our cafeteria they have installed a big screen to display the meal choices of the day. There is the little popup saying that windows needs updates, another saying that the antivirus software cannot connect to the internet, and some other blinking junk in the corner. That is, when it isn;t kicking into screensaver mode or is just BSOD. So under that 1000$+ LCD arrangement is now a whiteboard with a marker on a string.

I get what you're saying, but incompetent execution can ruin any approach.

> I want to see the screen that will work for > 20 years in a constantly moving and vibrating environment, under massive temperature changes, without any additional care or repairs.

Bingo. The screen becomes less readable (and if a touch screen, difficult and/or dangerous to use) the longer it ages, the more chance it gets physical damage. Then there's the batteries which go bad, yet the devices are glued. And then there's the backlight. My Kobo reader does not use/need much backlight, it doesn't use/need much battery (esp w/o networking), and the screen can endure a lot. So perhaps e-readers are partly exempt from this. Airpods, for example, are not because of the battery alone. Smartwatches: screen (often touch as well)/battery/backlight. Monitors: backlight/screen. On top of that, some of these devices also require software updates. These devices are sold to be replaced in a few years; not to last. If they were part of a service contract (like a boiler) they wouldn't happen.

> After a few years, it was normal to see trains with broken head signs, broken car numbers, and broken reservation systems.

True, seen this ample amount of time when I traveled with ICE Amsterdam - Berlin. I do have to admit I like it when I see the TeamViewer error in the EBS busses. All these otherwise show is useless, distracting commercials anyway.

> The result (at least in the towns I use public transportation) are regularly broken displays that even when they work, offer no advantage over LCD or LED or even mechanical display from a passenger perspective. They just look more modern.

Indeed, never mind the backlight dying, or the broken (stuck, dead, ...) pixels, or physical damage on the screen (due to vandals, accidents, ...).

I would imagine that LED backlit LCD screens are some of the longest lasting computer parts in the world. Gauges are physical devices and can go bad too.

Even if the screen itself is reliable, you also need the soldering connections and all other components to stay good (on a moving vehicle, exposed to a wide temperature range, direct sunlight for many hours, water etc)

Plus you need the software to be reliable, which probably isn't the case even when the system is new.

Most car radio software from the 90s and 2000s are very reliable. Most software bugs come from change, and since embedded system stuff doesn't really change after delivery, it stays fairly reliable. I estimate 2010s basic software is fine too.

And wiring harnesses / solder points being secure is an issue with normal car dials, buttons, gauges, engine / emissions control chips and more for quite a long time. I think you have to go back to the 80s or even 70s to get non-electronic gauges in mass market cars. The entire wiring point stuff is mostly a solved point. Yes some VW cars and other less reliable manufacturers do have solder or microswitches go bad after 20 years, but I'm fairly certain it isn't much of an issue in makes like toyota. And by that time in 20 years, some chinese manufacturer has made a clone part for $30 and it's mostly a non issue.

analog gauges tend to degrade gracefully though. I'm reminded of my highschool friend's '82 volvo whose speedometer read about 15% too low. inconvenient, but you could at least compensate for it once you understood the flaw. a group of dead pixels in a digital speedometer would make it totally useless if they obscured the ten's place.

I'm sure it was also possible to buy poor quality versions of older mechanical signs. Perhaps newer technology made it a little easier for suppliers to hoodwink incautious purchasing managers, but that's all.

Britain's railways have mostly orange LED platform signage. The LEDs have good lifetime and each sign has enough local intelligence that a failure in one doesn't knock them all out, but they also don't run Windows, because that's neither necessary nor sufficient.

You can even buy replicas (either desktop sized or full size if you're really train crazy) which pull data from the national railway system over the Internet unlike a real one but function the same. So e.g. configure one to show you platform 2 from your local railway station and you'll know at a glance if the train home is running normally before leaving work.

Early full colour displays suffer bad burn-in, but the orange LEDs don't have a burn in problem and many have been in service for decades.

Yes it is technically possible for one LED or even the entire sign to fail, and at the smallest stations there may not be any other signs for the affected trains but that's not different than any alternative, the fault will be reported and a fitter will be out to fix or replace the sign.

I simply don't believe that previously all the signage which exists today was duplicated but mechanically or with hand-written signs. Instead my guess is that mostly you just didn't know. On a London bus for example, before they had screens telling you where you are, which bus this is and what the next stop is, there was nothing. This is fine if it's "your" bus and you know the route, but it made buses very intimidating for visitors. Today iBus has screens and spoken announcements, "2 to Marylebone" says your bus, and the display spells out Marylebone in case you don't understand the pronunciation. Later on another bus "Lavington Street for Tate Modern" says the screen. You have no idea where "Lavington Street" is but the bus knows this is where to get off for the Tate Modern art gallery, and now you know too.

> Instead my guess is that mostly you just didn't know. On a London bus for example, before they had screens telling you where you are, which bus this is and what the next stop is, there was nothing

For the most part, this was solved by the driver or the bus / train / subway / tram conductor [0] shouting the stops out or announcing them via microphone. If you use trains in Switzerland, you will notice that some conductors will still announce the next stop when they enter a car to check the tickets. As in "Next stop Zurich main station, tickets please".

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_conductor

Do you understand the infrastructure required to support “simple paper signs”? They’d have to spend days reprinting signs when something as simple as the timing for one stop on a bus route changed. Also the simple paper signs couldn’t tell people which stop is the next one: you’d have to follow along on your route map and hope you didn’t miss something.

Overall the new systems which can tell people which bus is coming and how long it’s likely to be are great, because they help remove the worry about whether the bus I am about to catch is the bus I actually want.

Google Transit beats any paper maps and signs system hands down and requires far less capital investment.

> but as soon as the rest of the society realizes what is going on, I fear that there will a massive backlash.

This backlash cannot come soon enough.