Judge Says Microsoft Must Give States Windows Code

murphro (along with many others) writes, "Reuters is posting a story describing how the Judge has ordered the release of Windows code to the states seeking antitrust sanctions. I doubt it will actually happen (because MS will fight it this to the end). But if it did, do you think we commoners would ever see it? And if you did get your hands on the code, what would you do with it?" Here's the Yahoo link. (The same Reuters story is on dozens of other sites, too.)

yes!

[Anonymous Coward]

we can finally get Lotus Notes to work right!

what would we do with it?

[oozer]

Port it to linux :)

Wow!

[Arminius]

This is incredible!
You know the source would leak out. Maybe someone could steal a copy and give it to Linus so he could fix it!

Oh I think they'll turn it over without a fight...

[Chuqmystr]

...and printed out in wingdings font ;-)

/sbin/fsck -U micro$oft

Deluxe news :)

[pkplex]

I wonder which will embarass MS more, that they might finally be pushed around by someone more powerfull than them, or, the source code its self? :)

BFD.

[rtscts]

It's not like there's Indiana Jones/Golden Eye style boobytraps/keys guarding the source [microsoft.com]..

I know what they are looking for...

[Anonymous Coward]

Line 1171, url.cpp

// we stuck this code in here to shaft netscape

:)

A sainthood.

[WasterDave]

Should that be U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the patron saint of Microsoft bashers?

Dave

Amazing Stuff

[ReluctantBadger]

Linux zealots never cease to amaze me. They harp on and on about how shit they think MS products are, yet as soon as there is a whiff of getting hold of the source, they cream their pants. That is fucking pathetic. What would be REALLY funny : The code gets released, all of us Windows programmers come along and improve it, and then COMPLETELY destroy the Linux market share. Now that would be worth seeing! Linux Zealot + Foot + Gun. At the end of the day, pick the right tool for the job. In my case, that's OpenBSD on the server and Win2k for the desktop.

Re:Hmm...

[Xpilot]

Must be one heck of a birdcage you have... I'm afraid to think of how big the bird is... or what you feed it....

Re:Hmm...

[nice]

Poor bird :(

fun, fun, fun

[gclef]

what would I do with it, you ask?

cd /home/archives/windows/;grep -r strcpy * | more

buffer overflows, here I come...

State programmers will modify it.

[Nindalf]

They'll produce an IE-less Windows, and an installer for IE. They'll demonstrate it in court. It'll work fine. It will turn out to not be all that hard. Furthermore, the state programmers will point out that it would not have been significantly more difficult or costly to do that way than the integrated way. MS will not be able to rebut this to the satisfaction of the court. MS representatives will be found guilty of perjury. The judge will order them squished with an enormous gavel.

At least, I think that is what they had in mind when they asked for it. I guess we'll see.

Programming Assignment B5

[t_allardyce]

Grade: F-

Originality: 1/10
Functionality: 2/10
Code (Use of nesting, comments): 0/10

Your program failed to compile and as such there are no marks awarded for some sections.

The code lacked basic layout, nesting and the only comment was your name and assignment number at the top. The code was badly designed and had un-necessary use of goto's. Memory allocations where inefficient and unstable.

You have failed this module.

Re:I know what they are looking for...

[Anonymous Coward]

Those are C++ comments, but I could have sworn Windows was written in QBASIC considering the speed it runs and and the fact that it comes with the operating system.

Re:Hmm...

[zer0vector]

I'd be careful, after a while you'll probably get some sort of bird dropping buffer overrun, and the whole thing will crash.

coca cola

[cxgd]

This is crazy. It's like asking coca cola to realease their recipe.

I think microsoft should submit the code without comments, indentation or whitespace all concatenated in one big file. Then print it out and hand it over to the judge as one big paper print out - after all they didn't say which format the code should be in. - The trial would then last enother 136 years and everyone in the USA would have to become a lawyer.

just my 2 cents worth. You now owe me 2 cents.

Re:this is pointless...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually IE is like huge basketball sized breasts - fun to look at and painful to have on your body. It slows everything down to a halt. It is time to have a breast reduction to something more less bloated and not sagging.

What would I do?

[SpinyNorman]

I'd print it out, and take a crap on it.

Then mail it back to Bill Gates as a suggested enhancement.

Re:Of course IE can be removed... READ!

[jd142]

Media Player = RealPlayer Eradicator

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Anything that will wipe realplayer, a really nasty piece of work, from the world is a good thing. It causes more problems and is more bloated than any other piece of software since WP.

Re:State programmers will modify it.

[wadetemp]

Oh, you mean that squad of 20 elite programmers that the states just keep on hand in case they ever have to modify an OS?

Re:I know what they are looking for...

[alexburke]

Line 1171, url.cpp

// we stuck this code in here to shaft netscape

Line 1172, url.cpp

// because Netscape engineers are weenies! [evangel.edu]

Re:what would we do with it?

[Anonymous Coward]

fix it?

What would I do?

[nathanh]

And if you did get your hands on the code, what would you do?

I would wash my hands.

Re:Hmm...

[Hostile17]

Try that with WinME

Install WinME, reboot twice

Set TCP/IP, Install Video, sound and first update

try to figure out which driver screwed up the system up, reboot 3 more times.

setup WinTV, download second set of updates, install IE6

system screwed up again, uninstall WinTV, system still screwed up. Format and reinstall, 4 more reboots

download more updates, DirectX and dev suites, 2 more reboots.

Tried to play Wolf, but system hangs during setup, 1 reboot

can now play Wolf, but could only do the install after killing all the programs running in the background.

Yes Virginia, I am a Troll and this is Flamebait.