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I wonder what impact this will have on ReactOS
by 1023bytes 6y ago
I wonder what impact this will have on ReactOS
- ironmagma 6y agoReactOS has always taken a "we will rebuild anything from complete ignorance of the source" approach, precisely because of the legal liabilities. They are so good at it though, that people at Microsoft have actually claimed that the developers must have source code access.
- ed_elliott_asc 6y agoI had windows source code access (read) about 2005 but because of that I am not allowed to contribute to ReactOS even today.
- debian_lover 6y agoContribute anonymously
- akerro 6y agoIs that part of your NDA?
- saagarjha 6y agoNo, this is something ReactOS does themselves: https://reactos.org/project-news/reset-reboot-restart-legal-issues-and-long-road-03/ https://reactos.org/project-news/reset-reboot-restart-legal-...
- kizer 6y agoIs anyone who’s worked for MS barred?
- userbinator 6y agoTwo words: plausible deniability. Incidentally, this is also why you should separate your work and personal life.
- paxys 6y agoIt isn't plausible deniability when it can very easily be verified
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoYou only can't contribute code to modules you saw, you can still do anything else, like analysis part, not sure if they still do it.
- belltaco 6y ago>that people at Microsoft have actually claimed that the developers must have source code access. Source? Arent decompilers and disassemblers pretty good today anyway?
- concernedctzn 6y agoLegally they can't even use those, React does a totally blackbox reimplementation
- soganess 6y agoWait, pardon my ignorance, but isn't a decompiler required for the kind of work they do at react? Person A's Job: - Decompile shit. - Then write down the names of the functions with (1) input, (2) output, (3) a description of what person a think the code is doing (4) any side effect / preconditions / post conditions they can deduce. Person B's Job: - Take the spec created by person A and write code. while(missingFunctionality.hasNext): goto Person A's Job
- opencl 6y agoA lot of stuff is based or observing the Windows functionality in a debugger, or Microsoft's API documentation.
- rootw0rm 6y agodecompiler vs. disassembler is an important distinction here
- saagarjha 6y agoIt is and the split between person A doing the first part and person B doing the second part is important in a "clean room" reimplementation in the US.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y agoYou don't have to use a clean room methodology. Decompiling the code and reimplementing the functionality is a perfectly valid approach in any jurisdiction that permits reverse engineering.
- phoe-krk 6y agoSame as Wine: none, since they are required to be 100% black-box reimplementations. No one who contributes to Wine is allowed to even look at the original Microsoft source code.
- aloknnikhil 6y agoCurious, how do they enforce this? Or is it just assumed in good faith?
- Bancakes 6y agoWhile I haven't seen such a case, I can imagine a mailing list 'leaking' with posts like "like the trick Windows did for fast_malloc()" and such, then being summoned.
- pmarin 6y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS#Internal_audit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS#Internal_audit
- Sohcahtoa82 6y agoDon't you mean black-box reimplementations? White box would mean they have access to and use the source code. Black box means they don't.
- phoe-krk 6y agoThanks; fixed the original post.
- google234123 6y agoMost informed people have correctly guessed that the ReactOS devs have used the old windows research kernel leak in their development.
- devthrowawy 6y agoHonestly it would be dumb not to. ReactOS is basically a toy, why take what they're doing so seriously?