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Interesting, this one adds nt5src.7z windows_research_kernel/Windows Kernel Source Code like.7z windows_research_kernel/wrktools.7z to a version of this torrent that was released a few days ago. I wonder if this is going to be an ongoing leak.
All these files have been out there for ages. Especially the WRK, which anyone with a .edu could already download.
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What's the demographic that's using XP in China? I find this super interesting...
Industrial equipment control computers mostly - the computer is part of the machine and cannot be upgraded. You see this quite a lot outside China too.
Using Windows XP on those devices often gets very bad rep but is there a viable alternative for machines that are air gapped and technically won't be upgradable for several decades?
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This is still illegal to obtain, right? I'm not sure if it's wise to post the link as it may encourage others to download it and might be against the ToS on hackernews.
Is it, if you don't share it further?
Creator of the torrent posted on reddit about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsxp/comments/iz46du/the_windo...
>And also, Microsoft claims to love open source so then I guess they'll love how open this source code is now that it's passed around on BitTorrent. One can love open-source and still be against license violations. What a warped world view.
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.
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 afraid to update Windows. I don't know what new services and programs are going to be added. I don't know if the tweaks still work. I don't know if I'm imposed some new behavior. I don't know where certain settings (even entire setting domains) are going to be located, and how they're going to be named.
In a way, Windows XP is the Windows equivalent of the Linux XFCE/LXDE desktop environments.
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But realistically, how will they know if some random Wine contributor is "inspired" by leaked code? It seems like it would just go undetected.
Both ReactOS and Wine are open sourced, Microsoft engineers and lawyers look at their code. That's not a hypothetical situation, it happened in the past, the most recent news event on this was: https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/03/reactos_windows_resea... . With the risk of copyright infringement you want to be sure that you're taking active measures to defend your position in case you're facing legal charges.
Friendly reminder to use a VPN in the hypothetical case where you would want to download such a leak for _research purpose_.
Always a good advice but I wouldn't worry about MSFT going after downloaders of Windows XP source code. If it was about Windows 10 or even Windows 7 then maybe, but I don't think they care much that this is out in the open.
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Is it, if you don't share it further?
It's a torrent though. I thought about downloading it, but it seems unwise when you're automatically sharing it with others.
I'm actually not familiar with the legality of downloading this torrent. Is this considered legal, or is it like stolen goods, where the mere possession is a crime, even lacking evidence of the actual theft? Also, what would be the legality a group of people "maintaining" this code? (developing security patches, etc)
i would add that the biggest problem is not the downloading part, but the upload which you are also doing when using torrents.
Unless you set your seeding limits to 0kb. You take a hit in speed/availability (as more peers will likely not do business with you), but you also don't distribute anything.