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Windows XP source code has leaked

gizmodo.com.au

371–380 of 485 posts

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#371

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.

Why and how do codes leak? I don't understand. Is it that some insiders are giving out the information?

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#372

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.

Why and how do codes leak? I don't understand. Is it that some insiders are giving out the information?

It is still difficult for a new Comer like me to understand exactly what is going on here.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about specialized knowledge...it's about regular maintenance. Hate me or not...but people can't be trusted (broadly) to maintain things...thats just the way life works.

Why should they be forced to, at the expense of things that matter to them, though? That's the problem. Automatic updates were a default. People turned them off because they were annoying. One solution to this problem was to make them not-annoying, but instead Microsoft opted to become aggressive and force people to update. I will never hold anyone who thinks this is a good idea in high regard because they are active…

Microsoft forces them because it has to, there is no law for it. To drive a car, the car needs to pass a yearly inspection.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

This indeed

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. When saying "XP was great", people mean "XP SP2 and on" - for me, the move from W2k to WXP was "the same thing, now with Fischer-Price aesthetic!"

> Fischer-Price aesthetic That is the perfect description. It’s one of the ugliest UIs I’ve ever experienced.

People said that (as well as Skittles OS) since it launched.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fischer-Price aesthetic That is the perfect description. It’s one of the ugliest UIs I’ve ever experienced.

XP also shipped with the 2000 skin and it was trivially easy to switch over.

Yep. Even switched it over when you went to the lower resources usage settings.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#378
post #242

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 wasn't. It was just as stable as 2000 as long as you weren't a tweaker and stuck with stock. Almost every single OS becomes unstable with shitty drivers and/or cheap hardware that wasn't designed for it.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#379
post #142

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 think a lot of people have sort of backed their chair away from the table like you. I remember reading Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist and it talked about trade. Basically it said with trust, trade is unlimited. But what's been happening with computers and software is that trust been going downhill so quickly that many people don't install anything ever anymore. Privacy, dark patterns, monetization, form over f…

I think you're talking about power users, programmers, and IT. Regular everyday users still don't care and install whatever they like.

Re: Windows XP source code has leaked

#380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ran…

If you buy a system made with known linux compatible hardware you'll have zero problems. Just like a mac. Windows has the advantage that it gets first tier service and thus a greater chance with being stable with a broader swathe of hardware. OSX to me is much better than Windows because it doesn't get in your way. You want a new app download it and drop it in Applications. I don't know WTF windows does but some installs take forever; on Mac OSX and Linux install times are so much more reasonable and transparent. Obviously it matters WHAT you do with the OS, for some situations only Windows will have the software you need, and on those occasions I reluctantly use it. As far as stability on good hardware, for the average user, there's very little difference in the 3.
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