> If I'm running Southwest's crew scheduling software, how much of that do I care about? Not a lot of if you can't/don't want to upgrade or replace that softwa

> If I'm running Southwest's crew scheduling software, how much of that do I care about? Not a lot of if you can't/don't want to upgrade or replace that software to make sure it runs on modern OSes. I'm sure that for the most part that software is causing various unnecessary issues and decreasing potential productivity at least to some extent. Just look at GDS, they love to get rid of that, but that would require a coordinated effort and extensive collaboration between all major airlines which is somewhat tricky. > There hasn't been a real fundamental improvement in the functionality of OSes since Windows 3.1. Multitasking? A massive amount of other important features that matter if you want to build new software or significantly improve what you're using now. Also you seem to be downplaying security a but too much? Those devices would need to be carefully isolated from everything else (not that as I understand there is any evidence that Southwest Airlines is actually using 3.1?). > but those were fixing what was broken, not adding new functionality It's like saying that every new feature in introduced in any type of software that wasn't entirely novel was actually fixing stuff that was broken and wasn't "new". I guess some would apply to the claim GUI/desktop wasn't something new but it was just "fixing" (inherently "broken") command line interfaces? Being able to design significantly objectively better (based on how much it could increase productivity) is I guess is not strictly tied to the OS at least in some cases. But it certainly make it a lot cheaper/easier.