Microsoft made a big security pivot during XP. Gates put his foot down and forced the company to reprioritize secure engineering over everything else during the SP(2?) timeframe. https://pcheckup.com/strikethrough-google-docs
https://pcheckup.com/
Windows XP source code has leaked
181–190 of 485 posts
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#182Would be interesting if it can actually be compiled into a usable ISO - possible implications for digital preservation.
Would love to see the actual compile/build process for this. I don't think we'll see bootable ISOs (from this).
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think the consensus is that windows 95, XP, 7 were the least troublesome versions. I still think 7 > 10
10 has tons of under-the-hood improvements that are great, honestly. However, it also has a ton of advertisments everywhere, and those annoying auto-installing apps.
I don't use Windows day to day anymore but, my family has Windows 10 and I manage it.
When I sit in the front of the computer, I feel like I'm inside the big space ship in the Wall-e. All the advertisements, forced consumerism and everything.
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remote vulnerabilities don't really matter for air-gapped machines.
" Attacks like Stuxnet, the computer worm deployed against an Iranian nuclear facility a decade ago, shattered the myth that air-gapped systems are impenetrable fortresses. " source: https://www.cyberscoop.com/duo-labs-air-gap-radio-mikhail-da... Links to: https://duo.com/labs/research/finding-radio-sidechannels
It wasn't really air-gapped if someone plugged an USB in it, was it ;)
I'm aware of the "over the air" methods to _read_ data from air-gapped systems (The blinking hard-drive light!), however I was referring to doing damage to industrial systems running legacy software, where you usually find this (think a big machine with a "terminal" attached to it that just controls the hardware and has no inputs).
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
The amount of user data collected in Windows 10 for example. Next to no user benefits, just value extracted for Microsoft. Automatic updates on reboot. For example when someone giving a presentation or class has to restart their computer for some reason (quite common in Windows still, or one just ran out of power). Boot up the computer, people waiting impatiently - and then have to wait for 5-30 minutes for the compu…
Unpopular opinion but: telemetrics help developers prioritize stuff and triage bugs. From a user’s point of view, isn’t that a substantial benefit?
That kind of telemetry was in Windows 95 already with dr Watson. If people want the benefit of having the problems they run into fixed and they believe telemetry helps with that, they can just turn it on. No need to force things.
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Can you provide a source? I love to read that kind of stuff.
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
In early Windows XP days everybody said it was crap compared to Win2k. XP was the first one with product activation as well. And people called the Luna theme childish. Then Vista came along and people said XP was the good one.
Don't forget Windows 2003 Server in that list. That, to me, was the ultimate Windows. Had the XP stuff, but with the ugly theme disabled by default. Was super stable even compared to Windows 2000. Was lightweight. Only annoying thing was it came with sound disabled, but a few clicks in the Control Panel after installing, and you were golden.
That theme was wonderful in gray/olive variant if you ask me. It looked polished.
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#188Forgeting 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.
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Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#189Forgeting 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.
I considered Windows 2000 Pro the best version and switched to Linux after that - never looked back.
Re: Windows XP source code has leaked
#190An interesting question here is how did Microsoft's systems get compromised such that their source code was leaked?