Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Bank ATMs Ditch OS/2, Get Hacked

Years ago, IBM's OS/2 operating system ran about 80% of the world's ATMs.  Now that Microsoft's anticompetitive campaign to destroy OS/2 is complete, the world's ATMs enjoy the same insecurity as most of its desktop computers.  Case in point: ATMs in Taiwan recently spat cash into the hands of masked robbers who ordered the machines to delete the record of their attack.

Die-hard fans will enjoy hearing that OS/2 is still getting maintenance updates from IBM's licensee, Arca Noae.  I guess, in hindsight, that Microsoft can't therefore claim to have destroyed OS/2 in the absolute sense it destroyed Borland, smothered Netscape, and murdered DR-DOS – but it certainly used its market power and targeted software sabotage (like crippled OS/2 products) to kill OS/2 as a strategic threat to Microsoft's core business. So, maybe it's like QuickTime?