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Windows XP source code has leaked

gizmodo.com.au

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Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#171

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

buran77 wrote: post #106
cblconfederate wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think the consensus is that windows 95, XP, 7 were the least troublesome versions. I still think 7 > 10

The humorous but not wrong "consensus" was that you always had to skip a version. In this case 95 > not 98 > 98SE > not Me > XP (this was a bit of a departure because it was a successor to both the 9x and the NT lines) > not Vista > Win 7. And both XP and Win 7 were criticized at the beginning because they had to compete with very solid predecessors, and because they came with plenty of teething problems even if they…

W2k was the first possibly-not-utter-crap version. In the consumer space W3.1 was just DOS with Windows, and didn't even have full multitasking.

W95 was 60% bugs and 40% OS. There was even a really obvious bug in the calculator app. There were all kinds of very very weird - i.e. bad - design decisions both in the code and in the UI. Trying to find fixes and workarounds literally wasted days of almost everyone's time.

The initial release of XP was workable, but by SP1 it was fairly stable and you could actually use it as a working OS without having to deal with driver issues and constant crashes.

Vista was another dog. W7 was very possibly the best Windows. 8 was another WTAF release. 10 is 8 with some improvements, but some added evil in the form of forced telemetry for most users, and such.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#172

Post by [deleted] »

fimdomeio wrote: post #43

Forgeting about legality for a moment, this is great. Windows XP is probably the greatest operating system if you factor usability and how many people it has reached. It was also from a time where people still did not expect proprietary operating systems to be actively working against you. So it's great that this source will not be forever lost.

[deleted]

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#173

Post by square_usual »

FractalParadigm wrote: post #102
Flockster wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all forget that 8 even existed.

Personal experience would indicate that a lot of people hated Windows 8, not just because it took something they were familiar with and threw the biggest curveball at it possible, but because they actively made the UI/UX significantly more difficult to use. For me the icing on the cake was segregating different apps between "tablet mode" and "desktop mode," where the former would take up the entire screen with no rea…

I think the biggest change that killed 8 was the lack of the start menu. Having to go to the start screen - pulling you away from your entire desktop just to launch an app - was awful. I know Win 8.1 got it back, but for the time between 8 and 8.1 Classic Shell was almost necessary to use Windows 8. All that for no discernible benefit over using 7.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#174

Post by emteycz »

unnouinceput wrote: post #145
toyg wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downloading it would probably not even be a crime, in the same way a journalist getting hold of confidential IP wouldn't be a crime either. They'll go after you only if parts of the code end up surfacing in competing products, or if you belong to the distribution chain that leaked it in the first place. Microsoft is traditionally pretty skilled at dealing with piracy and leaks in more sophisticated ways than "sue the…

You do realize that technically, while you are torrenting, you also distribute, right? Because that's how torrent protocol works.

You can easily disable upload in every usual torrent client

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#175

Post by BallyBrain »

moshimoshir wrote: post #158

On this note, does anyone know where to legally obtain windows xp, hopefully for cheap ? I should note that I've tried at multiple places and none seemed fine so kindly speak from experience. (Or sell me your own, I'd trust anyone here).

The internet archive can help you out here, I used this recently for an XP VM

https://archive.org/details/WinXPProSP3x86

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#176

Post by bayindirh »

josteink wrote: post #164
pizza234 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally tried to use Windows XP (for my Windows systems, which is mostly VMs nowadays) for as long as I could. First, it was the first solid (in relative terms) consumer operating system from MS. Second, it was lightweight (in relative terms) in terms of UX and, somewhat consequently, engineering. With Windows Vista (but in particular, Windows 8), MS started to add complexity on every layer. Nowadays, I'm really…

> First, it was the first solid (in relative terms) consumer operating system from MS. That was actually Windows 2000, based on the NT 4 code base. It was near perfect, given the era it was made in. The only reason I upgraded from Windows 2000 was that Microsoft was extremely reluctant to back-port USB- or WiFi-fixes and support, effectively forcing you to upgrade to XP if you wanted to fully use your modern hardware…

> That was actually Windows 2000, based on the NT 4 code base. It was near perfect, given the era it was made in.

I also remember Windows 2000 fondly. It was really really stable. Even if it looked like it's frozen like a polar ice cap (they weren't melting that bad back then), a short coffee break would give it enough time to normalize itself and continue like nothing happened.

Should retry it in a VM sometime. :)

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#177

Post by Gibbon1 »

josteink wrote: post #164
pizza234 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally tried to use Windows XP (for my Windows systems, which is mostly VMs nowadays) for as long as I could. First, it was the first solid (in relative terms) consumer operating system from MS. Second, it was lightweight (in relative terms) in terms of UX and, somewhat consequently, engineering. With Windows Vista (but in particular, Windows 8), MS started to add complexity on every layer. Nowadays, I'm really…

> First, it was the first solid (in relative terms) consumer operating system from MS. That was actually Windows 2000, based on the NT 4 code base. It was near perfect, given the era it was made in. The only reason I upgraded from Windows 2000 was that Microsoft was extremely reluctant to back-port USB- or WiFi-fixes and support, effectively forcing you to upgrade to XP if you wanted to fully use your modern hardware…

One thing I read when dicking with how USB drivers work is that the Microsoft's first USB driver model was hopelessly broken, so they started over. And that also turned out badly enough that they redid it again. That's what ended up in XP and it mostly worked okay.

You can see why they didn't want to/couldn't backport USB drivers.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#178

Post by moshimoshir »

BallyBrain wrote: post #175
moshimoshir wrote: post #158

On this note, does anyone know where to legally obtain windows xp, hopefully for cheap ? I should note that I've tried at multiple places and none seemed fine so kindly speak from experience. (Or sell me your own, I'd trust anyone here).

The internet archive can help you out here, I used this recently for an XP VM https://archive.org/details/WinXPProSP3x86

Technically I'm looking to buy a serial so I can tell myself I didn't steal. Thank you for your link, once I have a serial I'll know where to get a safe copy from.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#179

Post by pabs3 »

unnouinceput wrote: post #141
segfaultbuserr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it really does exist, the backdoor can simply be inserted during the last-minute compile before release. It would be invisible in the code repository, the vast majority of internal developers at Microsoft won't even see anything unusual. Also, I heard anecdotes that Microsoft already allowed governments to audit the source code of Windows under NDA on multiple occasions in the past. But if you cannot guarantee the…

And that's why modern compilers won't have that. It was exactly so the same source, even compiled a second later, it will generate different binary file. I hate it. It was so easy in DOS era - same source, same binary file, easy peasy.

The reproducible builds folks are working on fixing that:

https://reproducible-builds.org/

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#180

Post by tinus_hn »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #51
fimdomeio wrote: post #43

Forgeting about legality for a moment, this is great. Windows XP is probably the greatest operating system if you factor usability and how many people it has reached. It was also from a time where people still did not expect proprietary operating systems to be actively working against you. So it's great that this source will not be forever lost.

Nostalgia is, it seems, a hell of a drug.

Always amazing to hear people sing praise of Windows XP when you remember how everyone was praising Windows 2000 when they were calling out Windows XPs insanely ugly themes and designs.
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