Microsoft Expands Access to Windows Source Code

Brain Stew writes "According to eWeek, MVPs living within thecountries that have signed up with Microsoft's Windows Source code program can now see it for free (limited source code of course). 'Microsoft Corp. has expanded the Source Licensing Program under which its Most Valued Professionals get access to the source code for the Windows operating system. The Redmond, Wash., company said on Monday that all the MVPs within the Microsoft platforms community and living within the 27 eligible countries worldwide will now be able to access Windows source code at no cost. '"

Comments

Gentoo Windows here I come!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to recompile Windows optimized for my hardware! It'll blow every other Windows away.

Re:Gentoo Windows here I come!

[Anonymous Coward]

Too late: windows already blows.

Re:Gentoo Windows here I come!

[bwy]

I'm going to recompile Windows optimized for my hardware! It'll blow every other Windows away.

Uh, there is something you should know. Something that will become very obvious very shortly.

Yes, yes. Windows is actually written in a proprietary variant of Clipper.

Huh?

[blackmonday]

I thought this was already happenning on Kazaa?

Count down to shared source leakage...

[Pillager]

10....
9...
8..

Re:Count down to shared source leakage...

[_14k4]

3...
2..
1.

10 PRINT "Linux"
20 PRINT "Sucks!!1"
30 GOTO 10

I'm pretty sure that's in the source somewhere.

Re:Count down to shared source leakage...

[Zx-man]

No, you are wrong - the lines 10 to 20 are totally obsolete and were removed due to the code optimization; the real source code should contain only the last line: 10 GOTO 10

Re:This is somewhat good

[October_30th]

However, the problem remains that they really need many more eyes to fix Windows

You mean guys like this?

This is bad...

[Jugalator]

Let's see if I recall things right from earlier discussions:

This is bad because

a) It's about Microsoft
b) The license handed out is way too restrictive

Obligatory movie quote

[JasonMaggini]

"It's a trick. Get an axe."

In unrelated news...

[An ominous Cow art]

Authorities are puzzled when software developers in 27 different nations are found stark raving mad, having clawed their eyeballs out.

Re:They want the source out as far as possible

[Anonymous Coward]

s/who works/did work/

What counts as a country?

[hoggoth]

"within the 27 eligible countries worldwide "

That is 28 if you count eDonkey as a country.

Re:Compile It?

[NanoGator]

"Do they get to compile it and run it"

No, Microsoft DRM'd the text file containing the code so that it won't compile. It took a while for the engineers to figure out why they shipped it on an XBOX disc.

Why sell your soul to MS to see the code ?

[e_AltF4]

... when you can visit some russian hacker sites and download it there ?
(And grab a copy of the Half Life 2 source with it :-)

Limited source release

[SuperKendall]

I guess a limited relase of source code would look something like this:

for (i = [REDACTED]; i != [REDACTED]; i++)
{

// Hmm, hope this buffer is long enough
[REDACTED]
continue;
}