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Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

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Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#101

Post by tanzam75 »

derefr wrote: post #87
ct1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS-DOS is maybe the ugliest operating system I ever had the displeasure of using. There's very little to learn from operating system design point of view in there, and better sources are available under more permissive licenses -- ie open source licenses. It looks like a PR stunt to me.

Given Satya Nadella's CEOship, and the sort of guy he is, I'm fully ready to believe that this is the start of a wider code release. It'd make a bit of sense that they have to work through the licensing to release MS-DOS before they release the source to any products that use MS-DOS at the core of them--like, say, Windows 95.

I doubt it.

I mean, Adobe also released the source code for an old version of Photoshop. So old that it didn't even have layers. It didn't signal anything about the release of source code for say, Flash Player.

And look at which version of Word they released -- 1.1. Not even 2.0, because 2.0 was the version where it became mainstream.

Microsoft has already released a lot of source code that's a lot more useful than DOS and WinWord. For example, the .NET Framework Reference Source.

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#102

Post by tanzam75 »

lutusp wrote: post #95
ct1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MS-DOS is maybe the ugliest operating system I ever had the displeasure of using. There's very little to learn from operating system design point of view in there, and better sources are available under more permissive licenses -- ie open source licenses. It looks like a PR stunt to me.

> There's very little to learn from operating system design point of view in there ... I understand your point, but in one important sense, this release has value. Someday, a scholar is going to write the history of drive letters and their perverse effect on all of computing -- up to the present day, where they're buried under a thin patina of respectability in the newest versions of Windows. Under Windows, including…

> Under Windows, including the most recent versions, you can get repeatable results for procedures that involve peripherals only if you disconnect them all, then reconnect them in the same order each and every time. Why? Drive letters.

So don't use drive letters.

Mount each volume in its own separate NTFS folder. Now you'll get repeatable results no matter what order you plug them in.

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#103

Post by darkarmani »

sremani wrote: post #54
masklinn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bell Labs was founded by Ma Bell, it's hard to top that and MSR does not come close.

are you privy to research in either of the organizations. I know its great to revere age old organizations but as we are speaking the best research is probably being conducted in a place we least expect. I am not privy to research at Ma Bell or only the published elements of Microsoft Research - so your reaction is more of an instinct than any factual basis.

> so your reaction is more of an instinct than any factual basis.

Do Nobel prizes and Turing awards count as instinct or are they facts?

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#105

Post by yuhong »

zokier wrote: post #72
yuhong wrote: post #17

What is funny is that MS-DOS 6.0 source code had already been leaked. Granting permission to IBM to make OS/2 source code available would be nice too BTW.

OS/2 is owned by Serenity/eComStation these days and they seem still to be doing active development on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EComStation

But I think it still contains code owned by MS.

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#107

Post by justin66 »

ptx wrote: post #97
pera wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nop: this is too old so it's pretty much obsolete now

But it will nevertheless be under copyright until long after we're all dead, so if you read it Microsoft could presumably still decide to sue you for copyright infringement if that ever happens to seem advantageous for them. I think that's what the parent comment was asking about.

> But it will nevertheless be under copyright until long after we're all dead, so if you read it Microsoft could presumably still decide to sue you for copyright infringement if that ever happens to seem advantageous for them.

You'd have to actually, you know, infringe their copyrights.

It's hard to know if you're one of the many who are confused about copyright, patent, and trademark but just reading the code doesn't put you on the hook for anything.

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#108

Post by yuhong »

qwerta wrote: post #20

Windows source code was available for a long time. My university had access to Win 2000 and some latter versions. Nobody was interested since most kernel hackers used BSD and later Linux.

I wonder what is the current status of Win2000 custom support.

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#109

Post by yiedyie »

I like some of the Microsoft products, but at least if they had been releasing MS-DOS 6 or 7 and Word 5 that would mean at least a bit of something, but this ...

And all released in the "look but don't touch" licence, I guess they need some waving cause of the Win 8 fiasco, the 8.1 fiasco and the retiring support for XP, if it hadn't been for the lucky Win 7, Microsoft would have gone the way of Nokia.

Re: Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public

#110

Post by Jtsummers »

tanzam75 wrote: post #102
lutusp wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's very little to learn from operating system design point of view in there ... I understand your point, but in one important sense, this release has value. Someday, a scholar is going to write the history of drive letters and their perverse effect on all of computing -- up to the present day, where they're buried under a thin patina of respectability in the newest versions of Windows. Under Windows, including…

> Under Windows, including the most recent versions, you can get repeatable results for procedures that involve peripherals only if you disconnect them all, then reconnect them in the same order each and every time. Why? Drive letters. So don't use drive letters. Mount each volume in its own separate NTFS folder. Now you'll get repeatable results no matter what order you plug them in.

As someone very unfamiliar with Windows administration anymore, how would you do this without invoking 3rd party tools?

Found MS's description [1]. However, that's not useable by most office workers, and the steps are likely beyond the average home user. So it's really just a feature for power users and IT departments.

[1] http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753321.aspx

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