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Because it turns from "Microsoft has nothing to lose by doing this" to "Microsoft is going to lose a bunch of money spending time negotiating with and paying th

Because it turns from "Microsoft has nothing to lose by doing this" to "Microsoft is going to lose a bunch of money spending time negotiating with and paying third parties to be allowed to release their libraries with windows' source code". People's time isn't free.

luma 7y ago
And that's presuming that the entities that held the original license still exist today. It's a morass that can be nearly impossible to dig your way out of after 10+ years.
- Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 7y ago
  It’s actually 35+ years, Windows 1.0 was released in 1985, and I don’t doubt that some (much) older DOS code still exists in one form or the other in their repo. The other problem is open sourcing the Windows code would be also involve open sourcing its crazy huge build system and tooling — it’s not a simple makefile — which is probably another level of impractical.
  - Someone1234 7y ago
    Likely true. They were able to get rid of a lot of Windows 1.0/Dos back-compat junk with the release of x64 (due to loss of native 16 bit support). I'm sure there's still some though.
    - tjalfi 7y ago
      Windows 10 32bit is still around and supports 16bit applications. My employer uses 32bit VDIs to run a few legacy applications.
      - Someone1234 7y ago
        I wonder how long they will support 32x Windows 10? I don't think they've announced an end-of-life, but it has to be at least on the books. It must be pretty expensive to port/test all of their patches/updates on something few use [0.70% per [0]). They already killed it on their server line (although it was silly on there with the low memory limits). Nvidia has already announced they're ending support[1]. [0] https://www.pcbenchmarks.net/os-marketshare.html https://www.pcbenchmarks.net/os-marketshare.html [1] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/267180-nvidia-ends-support-for-32-bit-operating-systems https://www.extremetech.com/computing/267180-nvidia-ends-sup...
        tjalfi 7y ago
        I don't think the numbers from PerformanceTest accurately reflect the usage of 32bit Windows 10. I find it difficult to believe that Microsoft would keep Windows 10 x86 around if usage was really that low. Backblaze found that about 4.5% of their customers use 32bit Windows in 2017[0]. [0] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/64-bit-os-vs-32-bit-os/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/64-bit-os-vs-32-bit-os/
        cr0sh 7y ago
        > I wonder how long they will support 32x Windows 10? I noted in another comment that they have a similar problem with people wanting VB6 open sourced, because so many businesses rely on VB6 apps - some written internally or exclusively for their business. Windows 10 (from what I remember) almost didn't support VB6, but in the end they included the runtime DLL to allow for the apps to work. I wonder if this is a part of the 32x thing? Seems a likely possibility... VB6 and the companies relying on it might be an albatross around Microsoft's neck; for how much longer, I'm not sure.

luma 7y ago

And that's presuming that the entities that held the original license still exist today. It's a morass that can be nearly impossible to dig your way out of after 10+ years.

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 7y ago
It’s actually 35+ years, Windows 1.0 was released in 1985, and I don’t doubt that some (much) older DOS code still exists in one form or the other in their repo. The other problem is open sourcing the Windows code would be also involve open sourcing its crazy huge build system and tooling — it’s not a simple makefile — which is probably another level of impractical.
- Someone1234 7y ago
  Likely true. They were able to get rid of a lot of Windows 1.0/Dos back-compat junk with the release of x64 (due to loss of native 16 bit support). I'm sure there's still some though.
  - tjalfi 7y ago
    Windows 10 32bit is still around and supports 16bit applications. My employer uses 32bit VDIs to run a few legacy applications.
    - Someone1234 7y ago
      I wonder how long they will support 32x Windows 10? I don't think they've announced an end-of-life, but it has to be at least on the books. It must be pretty expensive to port/test all of their patches/updates on something few use [0.70% per [0]). They already killed it on their server line (although it was silly on there with the low memory limits). Nvidia has already announced they're ending support[1]. [0] https://www.pcbenchmarks.net/os-marketshare.html https://www.pcbenchmarks.net/os-marketshare.html [1] https://www.extremetech.com/computing/267180-nvidia-ends-support-for-32-bit-operating-systems https://www.extremetech.com/computing/267180-nvidia-ends-sup...
      - tjalfi 7y ago
        I don't think the numbers from PerformanceTest accurately reflect the usage of 32bit Windows 10. I find it difficult to believe that Microsoft would keep Windows 10 x86 around if usage was really that low. Backblaze found that about 4.5% of their customers use 32bit Windows in 2017[0]. [0] https://www.backblaze.com/blog/64-bit-os-vs-32-bit-os/ https://www.backblaze.com/blog/64-bit-os-vs-32-bit-os/
      - cr0sh 7y ago
        > I wonder how long they will support 32x Windows 10? I noted in another comment that they have a similar problem with people wanting VB6 open sourced, because so many businesses rely on VB6 apps - some written internally or exclusively for their business. Windows 10 (from what I remember) almost didn't support VB6, but in the end they included the runtime DLL to allow for the apps to work. I wonder if this is a part of the 32x thing? Seems a likely possibility... VB6 and the companies relying on it might be an albatross around Microsoft's neck; for how much longer, I'm not sure.