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Windows XP source code has leaked

gizmodo.com.au

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Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#221

Post by mogwai77dk »

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…

Windows 2000 was the first rock solid OS from Microsoft, targetting both desktops and servers,but the desktop version was targeted at business users, not consumers. The consumer version at the time was the horrible Windows ME.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#222

Post by fractal618 »

Great metaphor

"Here’s where the metaphor really breaks down but stay with me: imagine if you wanted to break into a house but you didn’t know how. If you knew they had to open their windows when they baked, that would help you sneak in."

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#223

Post by rich_sasha »

hyperman1 wrote: post #129
dotancohen wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> did not expect proprietary operating > systems to be actively working against you. What did I miss? I've last used Windows in 2005, I'm pretty sure that was XP Service Pack 2. What does it do now to actively work against you?

If I remember correctly, the trend of anti-consumer features was already well underway with windows XP. Integrated DRM was there. The limited activation count was there. Creating themes without signing was not possible, and the 'fisherprice' theme was rolled out even if a lot of users hated it. Things were still overridable, but XP started the trend where the end user was not an allmighty sysadmin responsible for its…

To me there is a step difference between things like DRM it activation count limit vs disowning the user from his PC. One is creating a channel for bona fide purchases of licenses (you don’t need to buy music with DRM, it’s fair enough if vendors want to limit distribution of a product to the original buyer). The other builds spyware into everything you do with your computer and takes away control of it from you.

The analogy would hold if, dunno, buying some DRM Music also made you relinquish the ownership of your speakers to the vendor. It’s not quite as bad.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#224

Post by ZoomStop »

bzb5 wrote: post #134

I’m astonished by the amount of people who choose to leak code on 4chan.

As opposed to where? It is one of the few platforms that would allow a post like this other than security info forums, but if you aren't looking for credits on one of those 4chan is about all that is left.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#225

Post by necovek »

blablabla123 wrote: post #203
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. I used Windows 3.1 for years and I never had to reinstall it for stability reasons. At some point I also switched to XP and after 2 years it wouldn't boot anymore because of a blue screen appearing before the graphical interface would show up. That made the decision easy for me to use Linux exclusively - which I had on dual boot al…

Before committing to GNU/Linux in 1998 or 99, I've had a similar experience with moving away from DOS/Windows for workgroups 3.11 to '95: Windows 95 tried to achieve too much in terms of backwards compatibility between 16- and 32-bit software, and was very flimsy as a result.

However, I've briefly used NT4 as my "development box" (Delphi addict for a while, though in my defense, I was like 15 at the time) for 6-12 months, that was as stable as anything you could get. But it had the same problems as Linux: it was very specific as to what hardware it supports. The same "soft modems" (called "winmodems" at the time) were equally unsupported in NT4 just like in Linux, so you had to get yourself external hardware modems which were like 5-10x the cost (whatever came out of US Robotics?).

So since I was more into the hacker mindset, I moved into GNU/Linux world and never looked back.

But I did grow an appreciation for MS engineering: they can develop quality software, and did it even in 96, but their consumer OSes strive for unparalleled compatibility and allow anybody (literally anybody) to write system level code that runs on the kernel ring level due to that.

A couple years down the line, I've even seen an article how many workarounds they had to introduce into '95 to allow old software employing their own extended/expanded memory management tricks to continue to function (think stuff like DOS games, WordPerfect...).

For all the fun we make of it, Windows 95 was a marvel of engineering when you consider the constraints and requirements. Just oppose that to the new web app approach to software engineering: breaking backwards compatibility is such a common theme that nobody bats an eyelid.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#226

Post by segfaultbuserr »

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 major variables in modern compilers are just automatic timestamps, exploit mitigation random seeds, and toolchain versions, it is possible to make them immutable. The problem can be fixed, and there are already major projects to address it. Do you know that 90% of the Debian packages are already reproducible [0]?

[0] https://isdebianreproducibleyet.com

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#227

Post by bayindirh »

mysterydip wrote: post #205
bayindirh wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. :)

I actually ran a series of them in VMs for years because of their quick response and light resource usage, and they still ran all the stuff I needed. Loved that OS

I have a Windows XP VM to run the software for my MD player. You're right, the OS from that era is lightning quick in today's hardware, even in a VM. Also, the USB passthhru is problem-free interestingly.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#228

Post by kwanbix »

blablabla123 wrote: post #203
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. I used Windows 3.1 for years and I never had to reinstall it for stability reasons. At some point I also switched to XP and after 2 years it wouldn't boot anymore because of a blue screen appearing before the graphical interface would show up. That made the decision easy for me to use Linux exclusively - which I had on dual boot al…

I admire what the community has achieve with Linux. I think is really great and I have used Linux in the past (Redhat, Fedora, Suse, Ubuntu, Mint).

However, I always wonder what makes your experience so different than mine.

For me I can simple replace what you said and it will still be valid:

To me Linux were really frustrating to use since random parts of the system (CD-ROM, Word, Games...) would stop working at random times.

(well the part about the CD tray never happened to me with any OS).

I really like the customizability of Linux and such, but in the end, Windows 2000, XP, and 10 just works 99% of the time. At least for me who I consider an advanced user.

Of course there are things I don't like, like telemetry, but the pros vs the cons, at least for me, make me always return to Windows.

I have also worked with macs and for 4 years my wife had a MacBook. Not only do I find the prices crazy expensive, compared with ThinkPads, but I never found anything that was better in OSX than in Windows.

Again, I can use macOS if needed be, and I find it just fine. But I prefer Win/ThinkPad.

Of course this is my own opinion.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#229

Post by Joeri »

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…

Ha! I had the same with windows 2000 as compared to NT4. I stayed on NT4 as long as I could, and never really liked windows 2000 because it took twice the resources to do the same job at half the speed. Windows XP was 2000 with more (ugly) eye candy and a lot of bloat, so I didn’t like that either, but hardware improved enough that by the end of its reign it was quite fast.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#230

Post by GoblinSlayer »

eternalban wrote: post #156
tpxl wrote: post #127

Earlier 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

That's exfiltration, not infiltration.
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