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Windows 2000 Source Code Gets (A Few) More Eyes

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ahhh-did-not-release-that-code dept.

hansley writes: "Microsoft has extended its source code licensing program. Is it for distributed debugging purposes ? hmm ..." As the article points out, this limited and NDA-ridden disclosure is an expansion, rather than a wholly new idea. And remember, it has "nothing to do" with Linux or other Open Source software.

3 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. NDA = Crack by Spoing · · Score: 5
    I'm surprised more 'paranoid conspiracy theory' posts haven't appeared yet. Be that as it may, the obvious danger here is that the NDA probably has a non-compete clause that would make it hard/impossible to work on other operating systems for a certian number of years.

    While the number of developers lost to both comercial and free/open operating systems should be low, we might never know the real loss.

    If the NDA covers a whole company -- as the last one I had with MS for Win95 did ^ -- simply being an employee might stifle ... well ... inovation.

    If so, this is a real 'win-win' for Microsoft in the long run.

    How often do we discuss employment contracts and non-competes? The lack of talk on this issue here seems to show that NDAs aren't taken very seriously.

    ^. Not source.

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  2. Mmmmmmm.... by HiQ · · Score: 5

    Would that be the source of all evil then?

  3. But Will Developers help Microsoft? by stomv · · Score: 5
    • Will developers that see bugs in the syntax report them to Microsoft?
    • How can those developers be sure that what they see as programming bugs really are, since they aren't allowed to modify the code (and hence, check)?
    • Will Microsoft take an active roll in using any "suggestions" from programers regarding bugs in future SPs or versions?
    • Will the Windows OS improve as a result of this move, or just applications that run on the OS
    • Will this lead to some increases in bugs? If an application writer uses undocumented side effects of Windows (that she finds in the source code) and the code changes (SP, new version, etc.), will we see new bugs?

    I'm just full of questions. Anyone care to try and answer?

    The most important question (IMHO) is:
    • Is this move by Microsoft good for computer users in the aggregate in the short term? Long term?
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