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Comment by fluorinerocket | Hacker News Reader

Insane to me that someone would use a windows machine to run a piece of equipment when PLCs exist and are supported for decades by companies like Rockwell, Siemens, Allen Bradley

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There are lot of windows based solutions since more than 20 years ago for two main reasons : recipe management system, and logging. A basic SCADA of sort. PLCs systems of that era could either not manage it (TSX, S5,S7-100/200), or it would be additionnal very expensive, complex and typically OPC-based solutions (I'm shivering).

Some of theses solutions are built upon common PLCs but some are built as standalone solutions when I/O are simple enough (modbus mainly, RS232/422/485, ethernet/IP, controlnet, ...). Seen lot of them in breeding nutrition management systems, in-house developped processes, ...

Weren't all the ATMs running a custom Windows 98 into the late 2000's?

You maybe be thinking of OS/2.

https://wiki.os2world.com/index.php/OS/2_on_ATMs

Lots of NCR's ATMs switched from OS/2 to Windows 2000 workstation at the beginning of the 2000's in western europe. Probably the same anywhere else. Had a lot of fun with token ring networks with the strange square connector plugs.

Oh, and I forgot another great issue that made a lot of companies developping their own PC/windows-based solutions : PANELS. The panel solutions provided by the main players were quite horrific : proprietary, slow, buggy, limited, very expensive, bad at commissioning (speed, firmware/software compatibility issues). Siemens Simatic HMI from the '2000 decade was especially lagging and a few generation behind those from, for example, Allen-Bradley with the PanelView +/CE range, based on... Windows CE.

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