Splash-screen memories from a Bangkok ticket machine

When the operating system is older than the transport network

Bork!Bork!Bork! There's no keeping an obsolete operating system down, although keeping it operational can sometimes be a challenge, if public terminals are any indication. Today's bork uses an OS that dates back 26 years, but is still serving up train tickets.

Windows 2000 Professional seems to be a popular choice for ticket machine operators: a small footprint, bombproof reliability, and content to sit in the background while the customer's software takes center stage.

Unfortunately, that reliability was not on display in this ticket machine, spotted in Bangkok by an eagle-eyed Register reader. A reboot has brought Windows 2000 Professional out of the shadows, and the loading screen is visible.

Despite the age of the software on show, the ticket machine looks to be in remarkably good condition. Our reader told us it was for the Bangkok Metropolitan Rapid Transit (MRT), which began operating in 2004, years after Windows 2000 launched (the BTS Skytrain was opened in 1999.)

In 2004, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP were all the rage. However, we can completely understand why a ticket machine operator might want to stick with Windows 2000, despite all the fanfare surrounding its successors. The hardware works, the software works, and, so long as it doesn't stray near the public internet, why mess with it?

Until, of course, something goes a little awry, as is the case here.

Then again, seeing the splash screen of Windows 2000 Professional does bring on a certain feeling of nostalgia for the time when Microsoft decided that slapping "2000" on the end of its products was a good idea. Originally branded Windows NT 5.0, Microsoft decided that calling it "2000" would help customers embrace NT after enduring the joys of Windows 95 and Windows 98.

Customers didn't, and got the likes of Windows XP and Vista, while administrators found the follow-ups dubbed 2003 and 2008.

Although not much use for dispensing tickets, the ticket machine in Bangkok harks back to the era when administrators moved from NT4 to something with an unmistakable year in the product name. ®