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Windows XP source code has leaked

gizmodo.com.au

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Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#271

Post by beagle3 »

hyperman1 wrote: post #59
mindfulhack wrote: post #31

My immediate thought is whether researchers or investigative journalists will find cold hard US government backdoors. This is potentially big.

That would surprise me. Governements all over the world already received access to the source code to perform audits. Besides, probably the quality was still low enough that you didn't need this, there were plenty of bugs that would grant a big organisation access.

They got access to the source code, but not the ability to compile themselves.... my university had such access.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#272

Post by jeroenhd »

maxpert wrote: post #270

Good ReactOS developers don’t have to guess anymore. They can use this code as a reference and build their own version better than hasty M$ Devs.

No. If any maintainer of ReactOS evne just opens the source code, the entire project is doomed to get killed by lawyers.

The Win2k source code has been leaked before, as have several WinNT sources. These leaks pose more risks to projects like ReactOS and Wine than they benefit.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#274

Post by taneq »

noisem4ker wrote: post #251
taneq wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because since at least ‘95, MS has alternated focus between base technology and polish/reliability/UX. The ones we think of as good (98SE, 2000/XP, 7) are the ones with the focus on polish. The ones we remember as flaky (ME, Vista, 8) are the ones with substantial new tech in them that hadn’t had the additional years of refinement.

I think Windows Me was just an attempt at making 98 more modern and multimedia-friendly. It was just bad, with no relevant upgrades at any layer of the stack.

Yeah, actually let’s not talk about Windows ME. :P

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#275

Post by hestefisk »

hnlmorg wrote: post #240
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…

XP, when it was first released, was a more resource hungry and uglier version of Windows 2000. Win 2000 was amazing when it was released. Games (albeit not DOS ones) worked well, it was stable and really your only other options were worse (Mac OS 9 was less stable than Win 98, ME was a dumpster fire, Linux wasn't quite ready for the desktop and BeOS was awesome but barely supported). Then when XP was released, it had…

Agree, Windows XP was sluggish when it was released. Same applies to Win2K though when it first came out compared to WinNT 4.0. 2K was the first Windows to include a shadow effect under the mouse cursor. Oh the extra compute cycles it had to do to render that...

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#276

Post by bayindirh »

beagle3 wrote: post #252
bayindirh wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I had run tr0nscript on the computer I support for family a few years ago, and that made the experience almost reasonable. I know tr0nscript has fallen out of favor since, don’t know the exact reasons. I did need to fix the hosts file to allow windows to get security updates - but otherwise, that machine still feels as usable as win7 except for the degraded shell (which could be replaced with classic shell, I guess,…

> I know tr0nscript has fallen out of favor since, don’t know the exact reasons.

Looked to what it's doing in every step [0]. It's a bit overzealous while doing what it's doing. Also, its default are not the most sensible ones so, if you're not running it after installation it may change the behavior of the system quite a bit.

Removal of metro apps, resetting IE, purging %APP_DATA% storage, removal of some VCS snapshots... It's a thermonuclear option to take. To be able to run in a milder, sensible manner needs a lot of tuning. So it's not practical.

[0]: https://github.com/bmrf/tron/blob/master/README.md#full-tron...

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#277

Post by hestefisk »

cm2187 wrote: post #242
hnlmorg wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XP, when it was first released, was a more resource hungry and uglier version of Windows 2000. Win 2000 was amazing when it was released. Games (albeit not DOS ones) worked well, it was stable and really your only other options were worse (Mac OS 9 was less stable than Win 98, ME was a dumpster fire, Linux wasn't quite ready for the desktop and BeOS was awesome but barely supported). Then when XP was released, it had…

My migration from 2000 to XP meant blue screens. Most likely caused by drivers. But that left me with a lasting impression that 2000 was way more stable than XP.

It was largely the same kernel. Issue was largely because drivers for retail hardware weren’t written well enough.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#278

Post by spacekitcat »

spdionis wrote: post #138
asveikau wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 10 is a resource hog and contains adware. macOS ... Is special. Some of the most notable changes in the last few years have been to try to restrict what an app can do.

So you're telling me that macOS is more performant than Windows 10? Have you used both? Do you not feel the delay in every mouse click you do in macOS that is so maddening after coming from Windows? Both the UI lag and general performance in macOS is just a sad story. My windows machine runs 24/7 for months without needing a restart. I am forced to restart macOS weekly, usually because of system issues.

I don't share your experiences.

I'm a developer on Windows and OSX, so I have MacBook Pro and a ThinkPad.

I want to run the ThinkPad over with a car and then drop it in the sea.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#279

Post by kwanbix »

HeadsUpHigh wrote: post #201
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…

I still have a desktop running windows XP that my parents refuse to upgrade, partially due to a piece of software licensed per computer that costs >300$. Thankfully chrome no longer opens half the websites so they are limited on the web side at least. 14+ years of service, the only times it blue screemed were due to hardware breaking down. Rock solid.

Did you try to virtualize it and run it into a VM only for that app?

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#280

Post by MayeulC »

peterburkimsher wrote: post #243

"You want to update XP so it can run with new hardware? Go for it." - I would really like to see a version I could use with 2013-14 MacBook Pro/Air. I have a MacBook Pro 2007 multi-booting XP, 7, Ubuntu, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, 10.11. Surprisingly, XP is the OS I use most frequently on that laptop, by choice. I got some old HP laptops running XP for the homestay family kids, and have been playing n…

> I hope this source code can allow me to boot XP natively on my main laptop, so I don't have to carry around another computer just for compatibility.

In my experience, Windows XP runs fine on relatively modern hardware. The biggest offender is generally storage drivers (AHCI). You can download a driver and re-pack the installer with it.

Note that I haven't tried this in a long time, it might not be practical anymore. But with today's HW-assisted virtualization, you could just boot it in qemu or any other accelerated virtual machine, and you couldn't tell the difference.

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