4 ms·

The idea of Microsoft willingly giving windows source code access to government does not make alot of sense. What could have however happened is that the said

by Achshar 14y ago

The idea of Microsoft willingly giving windows source code access to government does not make alot of sense. What could have however happened is that the said "Intelligence agency" first created a malware to infect MSFT engineers' computers and get access info of the code repository and then spoofing themselves as MSFT employees to download the source code. This is alot more plausible considering what stuxnet and flame can already do. (Assuming they were made by same "Intelligence agency") MSFT should really check the systems of their employees first.

gaius 14y ago
Nah, anyone can get hold of Windows sources http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx Microsoft licenses product source code to qualified customers, enterprises, governments, and partners for debugging and reference purposes Drop 'em an email if you're curious.
- m_for_monkey 14y ago
  It would be cool if the Wine project could use it for reference. Currently they are working by reverse engineering, AFAIK. I wonder if they are "qualified".
  - parktheredcar 14y ago
    Probably not. Microsoft is 'sharing' their source code with select partners because it's in their best interest to be accommodating to organizations that are building complex systems on top of their product. Wine is closer to a competitor than a partner.
  - mindstab 14y ago
    I think in cases like what Wine is trying to do (reimplement/reverse engineer) you want "clean" engineers, not "tainted" ones. So I think that having their devs look at the windows source code might be the last thing they want. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
    - gaius 14y ago
      Also see http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html Compaq couldn't just copy IBM's BIOS to make their new machine guaranteed IBM compatible, this would be illegal, and easily proven by IBM. Solution: Reverse-engineer IBM's BIOS. Compaq used two sets of programmers - one group analyzed the original code and made notes of exactly how it responded. The second group took these notes, and wrote their own BIOS that performed exactly the same.
mxyzptlk 14y ago
It makes sense to someone. Microsoft shared source initiative http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx In 2003 MS gave China access to their source http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2003/feb03/02-28gspchinapr.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2003/feb03/02-28gs...

by Achshar 14y ago

gaius 14y ago

Nah, anyone can get hold of Windows sources http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx Microsoft licenses product source code to qualified customers, enterprises, governments, and partners for debugging and reference purposes Drop 'em an email if you're curious.

m_for_monkey 14y ago
It would be cool if the Wine project could use it for reference. Currently they are working by reverse engineering, AFAIK. I wonder if they are "qualified".
- parktheredcar 14y ago
  Probably not. Microsoft is 'sharing' their source code with select partners because it's in their best interest to be accommodating to organizations that are building complex systems on top of their product. Wine is closer to a competitor than a partner.
- mindstab 14y ago
  I think in cases like what Wine is trying to do (reimplement/reverse engineer) you want "clean" engineers, not "tainted" ones. So I think that having their devs look at the windows source code might be the last thing they want. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
  - gaius 14y ago
    Also see http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html Compaq couldn't just copy IBM's BIOS to make their new machine guaranteed IBM compatible, this would be illegal, and easily proven by IBM. Solution: Reverse-engineer IBM's BIOS. Compaq used two sets of programmers - one group analyzed the original code and made notes of exactly how it responded. The second group took these notes, and wrote their own BIOS that performed exactly the same.

mxyzptlk 14y ago

It makes sense to someone. Microsoft shared source initiative http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/default.aspx In 2003 MS gave China access to their source http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2003/feb03/02-28gspchinapr.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2003/feb03/02-28gs...