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I don't get it either. Can someone familiar with trains explain what on a train needs a desktop OS? A train is more like a car than an ATM machine, I would expect a collection of computers running either bare-metal or an RTOS like QNX/VxWorks (the pictured train is from 2000, so embedded linux hadn't taken off yet).

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You'd probably have an OS with GUI for non-essential services like lights, intercoms, A/C etc. And present some additional info in nice graphics: the state of carriages, situation ahead on the line (as a complement to just flashing a green/red light on the board). The rest would run RTOSes or similar.

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