Almost every industrial embedded system I've ever used runs Windows XP at the absolute newest, and it is not uncommon in the slightest to see stuff as old as 95

Almost every industrial embedded system I've ever used runs Windows XP at the absolute newest, and it is not uncommon in the slightest to see stuff as old as 95/3.1. These are computers that operate machinery that costs 6 or 7 figures. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Don't get me wrong, my Macbook is an absolute beast for all of my work tasks, and my gaming PC is an utter joy to use for my recreation time, but at the end of the day, for a ton of applications, a computer doesn't need to do shit beyond sending a lot of signals out of a parallel/RS232 port to control systems to operate... I mean Christ, anything. CNC mills, building lighting/security systems, packing machines, or to do things like issue tickets to people parking in a ramp. Like... a lot of this stuff just does not benefit at all from a modern software stack. Stick a crappy PC inside instead, load it up with the same image it had before which includes firewall rules that shut down every last port and connection apart from whatever needs to manage it, and you're done. Don't fix what ain't broke.