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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

#111
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.

Was? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx (some strings attached)

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

#112
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.

It served it's purpose for it's time. When I had an 8088 computer, MS-DOS was great enough for me, it was simple, fun to understand and work with. Like any OS it had it's quirks, but it got out of the way. Yes, minix ran on 286, so MS could have/should have, but that was then. Don't judge them too harsh.

> Yes, minix ran on 286, so MS could have/should have, but that was then. Don't judge them too harsh.

There was xenix. As inconceivable as people might find it today, people CHOSE to run simple DOS over Unix on their very resource-constrained hardware.

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

#113
post #43

is it useful for DOSbox?

Useful ? The next three weeks of HN will be: MS-DOS cross-compiled to JAVASCRIPT. MS-DOS running in pure CSS. Word for Windows as pure HTML 5 ( element). DOOM RUNNING NATIVELY on NATIVE MS-DOS on a PEBBLE.

DOGE DOS

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

#114
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The full license text is right on the download page: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/microsoft-research-lice...

Got a 503 on that link sadly.

Here's a mirror of the original MS-DOS version of the license: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TTs0lxz...

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

#115
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

My broad point was comparing an age old institution with Young one is not fair and more or less 100 years from now, who knows where things would be are.

Its not comparing apples to apples but again, if dissing MSR for not being Bell Labs - great then.

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

#117
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

Couldn't they pick any piece of code you write that happens to looks similar to some piece of code in MS-DOS and argue that it is in fact derived from their code, if it's known that you previously read the MS-DOS code?

Sort of like the "rangeCheck" portion of the Google v. Oracle case.

With patents it doesn't matter whether you read their code or not: you're screwed in any case. But with copyright the history of the code matters, so it could matter if you have seen their code before writings yours, I think.

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

#119
post #10

Under what license? Can we view, modify, redistribute? No one wants to get sued for these things, or being found to violate some end user license agreement with some other Microsoft software. On the other hand, I'd love to find out that people viewing this code contribute an improvement that no one in Microsoft saw in decades that helps them improve something today, leading them to soften their stance on Free Softwar…

To me, this isn't about useful code, it's about a terrifying journey back in time.
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