PAULA BOLYARD: The Worldwide IT Outage Isn’t Funny, but the Memes Sure Are.

We joked about the satiric tweet below on Saturday, but apparently, it really is entering “fake but accurate” territory: Windows 3.1 saves the day during CrowdStrike outage — Southwest Airlines scrapes by with archaic OS. “Southwest was often criticized for its outdated systems, but an old but proven operating system saved it (and its customers) from the stress that most other airlines were experiencing. Nevertheless, Southwest passengers weren’t 100% unaffected by the CrowdStrike crash, as many airports also encountered system issues. Aside from Windows 3.1, Southwest also uses Windows 95 for its staff scheduling system. It is a newer operating system — about three years younger than Windows 3.1 — but it’s ancient compared to today’s tech. Many of the airline’s staff have been complaining about it already.”