Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows XP source code has leaked

gizmodo.com.au

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 485 posts

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#321

Post by hyperman1 »

rich_sasha wrote: post #223
hyperman1 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I can't agree with you here, and in fact, I think this comment is proof of a shifted overton window. You are correct that things are not as blatant as now, of course

DRM is, for example, a way to kill the second hand market or lending. I can sell my table without approval from its manufacturer, or drag it to my neighbours for a day. I can't sell my songs.

In the same spirit, if I as a computer enthousiast want to upgrade my computer hardware or reinstall windows, I should not depend on microsoft's goodwill.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#322

Post by ThrowawayB7 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #155
asveikau wrote: post #56

Earlier 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.

Amen. Windows 2003 Server was perfect.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#323

Post by sys_64738 »

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…

I thought the issues with games on Win2k was that it didn't have an uptodate DirectX version. I recall various hacks to try to get around this after XP showed up but Win2k was always the odd one out for games if memory serves.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#324

Post by akmittal »

bronlund wrote: post #91
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.

> Windows XP is probably the greatest operating system... I tend to disagree. In my opinion it is the worst OS ever created and the reason it's popular has nothing to do with quality.

XP was released in 2001, It was really good for its time. Most people kept using it(beacuse of Issues with Vista) till 7 launch(2009).So for 2009 XP may seem old and outdated. But the fact that after failure of Vista XP was able to keep OS marketshare for Microsoft is astonishing.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#325

Post by jki275 »

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.

I would disagree.

XP is certainly not the proper OS to be running today, it's been passed by especially in a security sense.

But when it was released, it was the first really truly stable and consumer focused operating system MS had released. The NT series prior had been stable (to a point), and was good for business uses, but try gaming or doing much that a home desktop user wanted to do and it really fell down there. XP picked up the mantle of being the successor to both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, and it really did a great job of it.

Was it perfect? Of course not. But it did a job and did it better than anything else in its time for its specific uses.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#326

Post by orev »

Taking a cynical view (and how can you not these days), the inclusion of the anti Bill Gates videos could be actual goal here. The source code leak as the headline makes a lot of people interested to download it, and then maybe they watch those videos as well. This could be part of a misinformation campaign aimed at spreading discord around COVID-19. Given the timing and with the upcoming US election, everything needs to be looked at with a critical eye.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#327

Post by jiveturkey »

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.

> So it's great that this source will not be forever lost.

What a WARPed perspective. (hehe)

It's great that this was stolen and distributed? There's nothing great about that. This source was not lost and has essentially zero risk of being lost. It would have been held for all time immemorial within the vault of its owner.

> Windows XP is probably the greatest operating system if you factor usability and how many people it has reached.

Sorry, but that honor must certainly go to Linux? The OS itself perhaps doesn't have usability, but it has flexibility and everything in modern life depends on it. Every single person in the world, everyone, today depends somehow on Linux.

I'm not poo-pooing XP in anyway -- it was and is a great OS. Both for its time and still today. But I think it is far in Linux' shadow.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#329

Post by Shared404 »

ThrowawayB7 wrote: post #320
Flockster wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all forget that 8 even existed.

Windows 8 is fine, _if_ you actually know how to use Windows. (Protip: Win-D takes you to the desktop from the app grid.) I would go so far as to say it's good, if you're using a touchscreen or tablet; the live tiles were useful. Always amused me that the OS X Launchpad is also a ugly grid of huge app icons that takes up the entire screen, just like the Windows 8 start screen, yet nobody says a word about that.

Launchpad is simple to make work. I don't use Mac, but I can use Launchpad.

I do use Windows, in as much as I have to for work, and I still can't make Win8's launcher work.

Edit: Wrong version of Windows.

Post reply on HN