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A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

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Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#281

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

rkagerer wrote: post #226

While I haven't given it a test drive yet, I'm quite excited about ReactOS. I grew up on Windows, but have been in a state of disappointment for the last decade while I watched Microsoft slowly mutilate or let rot so many of the things I like about it. I hope by the time I have to give up Windows 7, ReactOS will have a viable alternative - or that it and the rest of the market will have forced MS to get its act toget…

> I hope by the time I have to give up Windows 7, ReactOS will have a viable alternative

Speaking as someone who has followed ReactOS from the very beginning - don't hold your breath. Their pace of development is absolutely glacial and very basic things still aren't working.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#282

Post by swdev281634 »

GreenToad5 wrote: post #94

Why would any paying customer use ReactOS over windows? There is no support (security patches automatically supplied ETC). Windows 10 is evergreen and new feature appear quite often. Microsoft loses exactly zero dollars a year because of ReactOS. People who don't want to pay for windows just pirate it. Those who do pay, get it buldled with a computer or laptop that they purchase, or are corporations who need support.…

> People who don't want to pay for windows just pirate it

Or they pay small fraction of the price on gray market: ebay.com, scdkey.com, allkeyshop.com, etc.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#283

Post by CRConrad »

JaimeThompson wrote: post #187
jeditobe wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, he did not. Mark Russinovich also started to work on Microsoft only recently.

Mark Mussinovich started working at Microsoft in 2006 according to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russinovich

“Recently” is relative. I find 2006 pretty recent.

Now, Anders has been there a while already...

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#284

Post by jki275 »

whereistimbo wrote: post #257
anticensor wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible.

Doesn't GPL actually offer a person a freedom to study the code? Isn't it a common phenomena of rewriting GPL Linux Driver into BSD Licensed driver which will be put into mainline *BSD? I know the case of OpenBSD 'stealing' GPL code from broadcom linux driver, but it was done by a naive kernel developer who copy-pasted the code and the maintainer who didn't bother to check the authenticity of the code. But AFAIK no G…

GPL is absolutely incompatible with BSD licensing. The license does not allow for one to "rewrite" the same code into a BSD licensed driver.

Of course one could clean room reverse engineer the GPL driver and then give the spec to someone else to implement and create a BSD driver, that would probably be ok.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#285

Post by intea »

codedokode wrote: post #278
intea wrote: post #123

Honestly I always thought that that was an open secret of ReactOS. How else are you gonna achieve binary compatibility with a closed source OS. Of course there's symbols but those only get you so far.

The information about many internal "undocumented" structures is actually documented on third-party sites. And if there are structures that are really not documented anywhere then you don't have to reimplement them because no developer is using them and they are not necessary for compatibility.

So you're using their "leaked" or reverse engineered information? That's just IP theft with extra steps.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#286

Post by codedokode »

intea wrote: post #285
codedokode wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The information about many internal "undocumented" structures is actually documented on third-party sites. And if there are structures that are really not documented anywhere then you don't have to reimplement them because no developer is using them and they are not necessary for compatibility.

So you're using their "leaked" or reverse engineered information? That's just IP theft with extra steps.

If this is made to ensure compatibility with programs using those undocumented structures then it is a different thing. They become a part of API.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#287

Post by JdeBP »

unstatusthequo wrote: post #48
rincebrain wrote: post #19

ReactOS underwent a big audit years ago because people kept saying things like this, and AFAIK it's over and nothing exciting turned up. [1] - https://reactos.org/wiki/Audit

Don't we all think if the accusations were true, Microsoft would have aggressively persued legal action? Remember that guy they sued into oblivion and maybe prison over "rescue discs" for old PCs? Microsoft it notoriously sue happy. Why not here?

Because what Microsoft did instead was offer Alex Ionescu a job.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#288

Post by Crestwave »

jki275 wrote: post #284
whereistimbo wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't GPL actually offer a person a freedom to study the code? Isn't it a common phenomena of rewriting GPL Linux Driver into BSD Licensed driver which will be put into mainline *BSD? I know the case of OpenBSD 'stealing' GPL code from broadcom linux driver, but it was done by a naive kernel developer who copy-pasted the code and the maintainer who didn't bother to check the authenticity of the code. But AFAIK no G…

GPL is absolutely incompatible with BSD licensing. The license does not allow for one to "rewrite" the same code into a BSD licensed driver. Of course one could clean room reverse engineer the GPL driver and then give the spec to someone else to implement and create a BSD driver, that would probably be ok.

Not exactly incompatible, as you can license something under both of them at once. But yes, you cannot relicense it without permission from the contributors; this is true for pretty much any license.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#289

Post by WhitneyLand »

axelriet wrote: post #233
WhitneyLand wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off I'm not policing anything, because, how would I have the authority to do that? Secondly you object to me presuming I know what his responsibilities are. I don't claim to know what he codes. However I'm able to make a pretty good guess about what the scope of a MSFT senior developers job is and this kind of thing is not even close, unless it's a special case worked out in advance with others. It wasn't worke…

My opinion about ReactOS has nothing to do with my job or my employer, you are trying to make this into something it is not.

Your opinion has a huge amount to do with your job and your employer.

Appeal to authority may be a classical logical fallacy, but it's a highly effective one and is used by many people to infer the merit of an opinion rightly or wrongly so. Yeah, I know it's weird, that people would associate a comment one person posts with the voice of a trillion dollar company. Just happens sometimes.

Moreover I have nothing to gain by trying to "make this into" anything.

Believe it or not, I actually hoped it could be of some help to you as another data point - as far as all the things you take into consideration when choosing how to exercise your bill of rights free speech, which has nothing to do with your corporate free-speech. The latter of which unfortunately has cost many people dearly.

With respect to Microsoft, I'm certainly not making any comment about them as a company one way or another. That wasn't the point because, this concept applies to most large similar tech companies.

Things do change rapidly at such companies. Fwiw, I have done your job, your bosses job, been the janitor, and a few other things there. Things may be different now, but i'm not making the most possible uninformed guesses just to mess with you.

I sincerely hope the truth is known and that there are no negative repercussions for you personally.

Re: A Kernel Engineer at Microsoft's Answer to “What Do You Think about ReactOS?”

#290

Post by WhitneyLand »

admax88q wrote: post #252
WhitneyLand wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First off I'm not policing anything, because, how would I have the authority to do that? Secondly you object to me presuming I know what his responsibilities are. I don't claim to know what he codes. However I'm able to make a pretty good guess about what the scope of a MSFT senior developers job is and this kind of thing is not even close, unless it's a special case worked out in advance with others. It wasn't worke…

This was a fairly pedantic post but I'll reply anyways. > First off I'm not policing anything, because, how would I have the authority to do that? Maybe policing isn't the right word, but your earlier post was fairly condescending to axelriet. "I think they'd disapprove... It's your job to do this... It's your job to do that..."

It's subjective, but let's be real, you're probably right.

Moreover, I don't believe in such a philosophy between any two people, so to the extent it is I regret the tone of the comment.

If it makes any difference, the true source of the tone was based on thinking similar to, holy crap that person is backing up into a stove someone speak loudly and quickly... There is no evidence for you to believe that, but I hope you will, somehow, decide the intent was nothing more.

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