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ReactOS has always taken a "we will rebuild anything from complete ignorance of the source" approach, precisely because of the legal liabilities. They are so go
by ironmagma 6y ago
ReactOS 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.