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MS Proposes Disclosing Windows Source To India

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the catch-the-catch dept.

raghuram writes "Interesting news from Economic Times of India, I found an interesting story, Microsoft Planning to Share Code with India." He excerpts from that article: "Microsoft has already made a proposal to the ministry of information technology (of India) for sharing the Windows source code with one government body. The nature of the body has not been spelt out; it will presumably be worked out after discussions between the company and the government officials. Interestingly, the offer comes at a time when state governments are showing interest in rival Linux operating system as the latter's source code is free and downloadable from the internet."

8 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. IBM counters Bill Gates "gifts" to India by Locutus · · Score: 5, Informative
    I read this morning that IBM was offering some incentived to India to go Open Source instead of Closed Source( ala Microsoft ).

    http://in.news.yahoo.com/021212/43/1z0mv.html

    I think IBM realizes what's at stake here and is willing to put more $$ where it's mouth is. That's gotta piss Bill and Steve off.

    LoB

    --
    "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  2. Re:Wild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    We, at my college, have NT 4 or 5 on CD (I think it's a 6 or 7 CD set). Entire source, but it's basically shelved away: the professors don't care about it, and the students generally don't know about it (or, if they do, care enough to sign an nda and get a professor to access the cds).

  3. Re:Sweet... by ProgressiveCynic · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, it will be little harder than that. I've got access to the Windows source at work, and it's not like you just get the source tree as files. Access is through a special viewer that requires a smart card with the correct certificate to be inserted while viewing, and then only allows particular files to be viewed through a special GUI. You could copy and paste each file out of the GUI and build your own source tree, but since we're talking about hundreds of thousands of files and gigabytes of data it would probably take a little more than six hours. At least until they automated it.

    --

    Delivering militantly anti-commercial music to all two people who care!

  4. Re:Wild... by Otter · · Score: 5, Informative
    One wonders if this is a precedent being set

    There's nothing new about this about this. Microsoft has made source available (under an NDA) for years, probably always. Presumably the fact that there are now competing operating systems and applications that offer complete and routine access to source may push them to offer source more liberally but there's nothing new here.

    All that's new is that journalists and readers now know what the words "source code" mean.

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  5. Re:bad idea microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    1. The interface is ugly, even if it is changeable.
    2. Your home directory has a path that has spaces in it, breaking some (older) software.
    3. It needs more RAM to work than my current computer has. I'd have to buy a whole new computer at great expense, just to get the same functionality (and number of bugs) that I have in Win95 (with the Plus pack, otherwise said OS would be unusable).
    4. It costs money.
    5. I don't like Microsoft's attitude about my computer.
    6. I don't like the litter in my help files about what I should do if I'm using a ``pirated'' version of Windows.

    Windows 95.
    [Version 4.00.1111] Revision A
    DOS is in HMA
  6. Re:Sweet... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ok, then why hasn't it already leaked. Arizona State University in Phoenix Arizona has the Window source code, as do many other research instutitions. Have a look at http://research.microsoft.com/collaboration/univer sity/NTSrcLicInfo.aspx.

    It's not like the Windows code is some uber secret that noone outside MS has ever seen, it is just controled. What MS objects to is having to give their source code to their competitors or to the public at large, not to certian groups of their choosing.

  7. Re:scared.. by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 3, Informative

    As I said before, please read this before jerking the knee:

    http://research.microsoft.com/collaboration/univ er sity/NTSrcLicInfo.aspx

    This may be the first time they've done this with a government, but it isn't the first time they've liscenced out their source.

  8. Under current international copyright law. . . by kfg · · Score: 2, Informative

    to which the US is now a signatory, all original works are automatically copyrighted at the time of creation. No special filing is required.

    The code is copyright protected and the property of MS.

    DeCSS is a slightly different case as it broke certain provisions of the *US's* DMCA regarding *encryption* of digital files. Adobe is now trying to claim those provisions even apply to works in the *public domain.* The provisions of the law are NOT part of the international code, but poor Jan is in court anyway.

    KFG