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Comment by brudgers | Hacker News Reader

Tooling to integrate with a COBOL backend?

Bankers and ATM manufacturers ain't morons. They aren't using Windows XP out of ignorance. ATM's have been widely deployed in the US since about 1980 and it's the last version of Windows that runs old 16 bit code directly.

It is not as if banks have an aversion to Linux. What they are averse to is risk. Reimplementation requires testing for a level of robustness well to the north of MtGox. Multi-touch pinch to zoom doesn't matter- ATM's require physical buttons for handicap accessibility [by law in the US].

Disrupting banks isn't about ATM's. It's about new financial structures.

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> Bankers and ATM manufacturers ain't morons.

Moron is perhaps a harsh word but it's been known to the public when Microsoft will stop supporting Windows XP. They had years to prepare. And they are multi billion dollar corporations. How can they have dropped the ball with this?

Time taken to certify a more recent version of the OS? Time needed to sort out a 16bit backend?

I don't know, I'm just thinking of possible reasons. Same as in the good old NHS in the UK [1] and especially the comment at [2].

[1] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/20/doh_microsoft_nhs_on...

[2] http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/03/20/doh_micro...

and

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/2/2014/03/20/doh_micro...

No one's dropped the ball - everyone's ignored it as someone else's problem as it's a maintenance issue, not one for direct profit. Same as for the y2k and and IPv4 problems. Outside of IT, it's probably the same for global warming. There's probably a special/psychological term for this.

Procrastination?

What is the ball they dropped?

Please show me the comparative risk analysis of sticking with XP after support ends versus rewriting an existing code base across fleets of machines that not only spit cash but are also hardwired into the electronic transfer systems.

I''ll stipulate that coming across as a brogrammer friendly workplace doesn't count.

The thing is they weren't updating their ATM software anyway, and they were always on isolated subnets. Why would you care if support is dropped?

XP Embedded != XP Retail

They didn't drop the ball.

Every single manager did a quick analysis, worked out that the upgrade would cost "Holy shit, how much of my budget?", and punted down the road in the hope that someone else would have to eat the cost.

And, Microsoft will probably extend support (for a big chunk of money) after the big companies scream enough.

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