A disclaimer to start off with. I use Linux as my daily driver, and my day job is not a Crowdstrike client. This means this whole mess is having much less of an effect on me than on some IT people around the world.

While this whole Crowdstrike issue has caused a lot of disruption, and may end up having an actual body count, I find some of the reactions in the Fediverse very unrealistic and sometimes frankly annoying. Let’s have a look at some of the themes I’ve noticed.

A Microsoft problem?

Many people, including news outlets, are calling this a Windows problem, some even saying stuff like “A Microsoft Windows update caused a global IT outage”. So unpacking that is pretty simple, this was not a Windows update, this was an update of a 3rd party application called Falcon Sensor by a company called Crowdstrike. Crowdstrike’s software is not a standard part of Windows, it’s a paid for product that many businesses have purchased and rolled out to their systems. It’s worth noting that the same product is also installed on many Linux and MacOS systems, it just happens that this particular incident affected the Windows version of the software. (Aside: I’m already wondering if Microsoft’s legal team are taking notes)

Don’t run Windows?

To a disturbing level, this whole incident has turned into fodder for the whole Linux vs Windows holy war, with many Linux people saying stuff like “well, this wouldn’t have happened if everyone was running Linux”. So let’s get real. What is your solution for getting everyone to run Linux? Specifically:

• Will you be personally helping thousands of businesses that use Windows extensively to switch to Linux and solve the huge number of problems such a switch will cause?
• What would the timeline for this project be? A month, a year, a decade?
• What is your plan for the very many developers and other IT people who work with Windows? Some sort of global plan to retrain those people while also putting food on their tables? Or are you proposing that these people become unemployed and starve?
• While we’re on the subject, what’s your plan for the thousands of people who work at Microsoft?

Point and laugh at Windows users?

Another trend I see is people saying that the most positive aspect of this whole mess is that now we know what businesses are running Windows. See the bit above. I know of many businesses that have extensively invested in Windows based technology for a very long time.

So imagine a hypothetical business (Let’s call them ABC Business Services) that provides services to other businesses, many of those clients being much bigger than ABC Business Services. This business uses the principle of “the best tool for the job” and much of the product offering has been based on Windows technology for two decades now. A large portion of the development and IT staff compliments are Windows specialists who are very good at what they do, they understand the technology and they understand the products they build and support. They are good at what they do.

So let’s see what happens if the Linux side wins the holy war and Windows is banned, no new stuff is allowed to be built on Windows technology and stuff currently on Windows technology need to be moved to Linux.

• All new feature development at ABC Business Services stops, meaning clients are not getting features they have asked for, increasing the risk of those customers going to other providers to get what they want.
• The IT and development people who specialize in Windows technology are in big trouble, they face the prospect of either dropping back down to the bottom rung on the Linux ladder, or just losing their jobs.
• ABC Business Services is faced with the prospect of having to completely recreate a product offering that’s been 20 years in the making on a completely different platform. This involves either waiting for the current developers to retrain on Linux technology, or cutting those staff and finding new staff who know the new technology stack and have zero idea about the products they are supposed to be building.
• So based on the point above, ABC Business Services is faced with: Waiting a long time for existing staff to retrain, effectively doubling payroll by getting new staff while keeping old staff (now demoralized because they are going to lose their jobs eventually) around to teach the system, or taking the huge risk of replacing all the staff with new people who have no idea about the product they are supposed to rebuild.
• Most likely scenario: ABC Business Services shareholders see the issues listed above and decide the best path forward is to close the business and sell off the assets.

Closing thoughts

This Crowdstrike issue is a big mess, people have probably lost their lives and it’s likely people will lose their jobs. There are some businesses, even ones that never bought Crowdstrike, that have already been damaged to the point where they may have to lay off staff.

While humour is a way to deal with crisis, a lot of what I’ve seen has not been humour, but rather fundamentalist fanatics making use of a crisis to promote their own message and hurt the people who don’t agree with them.

In a slightly different world, I might have ended up as one of those people saying “well, it’s your fault for running evil Windows”, but I’m a realist instead of a fundamentalist. I believe in using the best tool for the job, and sometimes “best tool” means “the tool we already have that doesn’t need huge amounts of time and money to replace”.

I have hope that this incident will inspire businesses to have another look at their technology (and policies) and maybe move a bit closer to running on open source technologies. This is not going to a quick and total change, even in the most ideal of situations, but I believe some businesses will have the ability to start moving in that direction.