reports of massive worldwide internet outage

[confusedaunt]

Just warning you - obviously if you are on here then it hasn't hit you hard! But I have just lost google, and my work internet connection

They will, which is a good thing.

I certainly hope lessons have been learnt!

But I do think having so many systems reliant on the same software is a weakness, not because of the update thing as that can be avoided by testing, but if they are vulnerable to cyber warfare then there's the risk of a lot more of this in the future.

Most Windows PCs were not directly affected by this because most Windows PCs aren't running CrowdStrike.
Most services (eg Mumsnet) weren't affected because most services run on some variety of Linux or other.
But in a world where pretty much everything you do requires interaction with multiple services, and those services often rely on multiple other services in the background, any issue that affects a few percent of services will have a noticeable impact.
But what's the alternative? You can't have a custom operating system for every computer. You can't write your own web server for every service. You have to use the same stuff on more than one box.

Fortunately my two hospital appointments were unaffected. Everything appeared to be working online as normal.

My nhs app for my repeat prescriptions wasn't working yesterday but appears to be today. I've just done an order for my pain meds on it.