Why the fuck would you use windows in mission critical spaces.

You wouldn’t and they didn’t.

The article has just failed to inform the readers (the few that got past the headline), that this was on his personal Surface Tablet and not on anything associated with the mission.

If it’s on the ship, it’s associated with the mission. Windows has a very high habit of barfing so over itself, as is evidenced by this article. It’s bonkers to me that they chose to use Windows for anything at all.

I don’t think the phone in my pocket is “associated with my job” when I’m working, just because it’s in the same location.

False equivalency.

If you were going on a 10 day hike to the most remote location on earth, would you bring the most unreliable device you could find, or something you can count on?

You don’t understand. Their personal device can be trashed immediately without any drawbacks to the mission.

If I go on a 10 day hike to the most remote location on Earth, and bring my jojo to have some fun with, I really don’t care if it breaks on my hike, and the hike is not affected except for my not having fun with my jojo.

No, I do understand. I still think it’s a bad decision. It’s not just about how critical to the mission it is. It’s useful as a form of communication with family and entertainment. In that context I do think it’s “important”. And also in that context, I would want something reliable.