MX Linux Forum

17 years late, but still. Of interest is that the code dump apparently might affect security in later versions of Windows. A bit of a blow against "security by obscurity".

Windows XP Source Code Has Just Been Leaked on 4chan
https://interestingengineering.com/bewa ... een-leaked

Those still using Windows XP may have cause for worry as the source code for the operating system was recently posted on 4chan, reported Gizmodo. It was posted on the site with the caption: ‘sooooo Windows XP Source code leaked’.

Independent researchers then began looking into the code and found it to be legitimate. This is very worrisome for the 1.26% of computer users that still have Windows XP worldwide (including Vladimir Putin) and the trouble may extend to other operating systems.... 

That looks like one way for Microsoft to go open source.

Windows XP was a pretty good system. Especially Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 with EWF configured. But Linux is still better. It's like a sip of pure water.

LiD wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 6:45 pm Windows XP was a pretty good system. Especially Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 with EWF configured. But Linux is still better. It's like a sip of pure water.

I loved XP. Made a lot of money fixing it.

LiD wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 6:45 pm Windows XP was a pretty good system. Especially Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 with EWF configured. But Linux is still better. It's like a sip of pure water.

Windows 2000 was even better than that. It was the last version of Windows that you didn't have to activate and was the last one that wasn't required to phone home periodically. Customizing Windows 2000 was also easier than XP since it wasn't obscured with unprecedented amounts of "webbyness" in the GUI.

Article report wrote:However, finding out a source code may also be compared to knowing for instance how a house operates. Let's say someone wanted to rob you, it would help if they knew what time you would leave the house unattended. A source code provides the equivalent of that information.

This seems a bit of a flawed analogy to me. It would be like saying that source code provides information about when someone will turn their computer on and off. Not all security issues arise from software bugs. A lot of security issues are the result of bad configurations and compromises, and bad habits of operators.

AK-47 wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:46 pm

LiD wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 6:45 pm Windows XP was a pretty good system. Especially Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 with EWF configured. But Linux is still better. It's like a sip of pure water.

Windows 2000 was even better than that. It was the last version of Windows that you didn't have to activate and was the last one that wasn't required to phone home periodically. Customizing Windows 2000 was also easier than XP since it wasn't obscured with unprecedented amounts of "webbyness" in the GUI.

Windows 2000 was the first good Windows. Windows XP was good too but the theming was a bit outlandish. Windows 8 / 8.1 had the worst G.U.I. that looked like it was strictly made for touch screens. I had to install Classic Shell to make it usable. Windows 10 is Spyware/Malware! The worst Windows distro was Windows 98se which holds the title of the most unstable piece of garbage and the most Blue Screen Of Deaths.

The first things I would do in a new XP installation were to switch from the Teletubies theme to Windows Classic and disable all the special effects eye candy. Then its look and feel was basically the same as in Windows 2000, plus it ran faster without those slight pauses while waiting for windows to fade in and out and stuff like that.

Mauser wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:03 pm The worst Windows distro was Windows 98se which holds the title of the most unstable piece of garbage and the most Blue Screen Of Deaths.

Meh.. I disagree

I had a great Music production setup on Win98SE with 24bit Audio support, Wavetable sampling and other stuff that was quite ahead of its time. The disappearance of ISA slots and the software compatibility issues of XP both with hardware drivers and with the Audio software I was using pulled the rug out from under me and I was sadly never able to replicate that setup on XP. Yes... my use case was not common at all but 'Vendor lock in' both with Windows and with commercial Audio software both drove me into the loving arms of Linux.

I had far more stability issues with XP than I ever did with 98SE...*shrugs

Does it come with those hilarious comments about how bad the MS code and coders are?

JayM wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:07 pm
The first things I would do in a new XP installation were to switch from the Teletubies theme to Windows Classic and disable all the special effects eye candy.

Yes, I've always done the same. And after 2012, I used Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. In fact, it was minimal XP plus such wonderful tools as EWF and FBWF. Now, thanks to MX Linux, I was finally able to find similar functionality in the Linux system. I think if it wasn't for MX, I would still be using the EWF tool. By the way, sometimes I still use it. )) For example, when I need Adobe Photoshop CS3. GIMP is a good editor, but when I've used Photoshop for years, it's not so easy to change my habits.

Stevo wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:32 am Does it come with those hilarious comments about how bad the MS code and coders are?

It seems to me that proprietary code can't be perfect in principle.

Gaer Boy wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:41 am Windows.jpg

Super!

If they'd included Windows 10 it should have been a picture of the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland.

JayM wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:23 am If they'd included Windows 10 it should have been a picture of the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland.

I have a close friend who is obsessed with the privacy of his data. And he stubbornly modifies Windows 10 LTSB. I do not know how much time he spent on this, but I think that during this time he could have already conducted a thorough security audit of some linux distribution. ))

LiD wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:43 am

JayM wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 6:23 am If they'd included Windows 10 it should have been a picture of the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland.

I have a close friend who is obsessed with the privacy of his data. And he stubbornly modifies Windows 10 LTSB. I do not know how much time he spent on this, but I think that during this time he could have already conducted a thorough security audit of some linux distribution. ))

It's impossible, in theory, the leaks can also be from the hardware, not only from the software.

I'm of the opinion that Windows has steadily gotten better over the years, but with serious hiccups along the way. Vista was nowhere near as bad as its rep - it's like the Ford Edsel - except that it was rather poor on resources. But the difference between Vista and Seven isn't so great, except that the Vista fixes were never made, they were put into 7 (there was another operating system to sell, after all). Win8 was a step forward under the hood, but the GUI was such an unmitigated disaster that the package was completely unacceptable. 8.1, with Classic Shell, remained my best Windows for quite a while. I wouldn't use Win10 for a couple of years, but now I think it's workable with the right settings.

The consistent problem behind all this has been MS's greed for both money and power. It wasn't enough to be part of or even lead the tech revolution, it had to control it. The money angle was more blatant back in the day, with its pricing and its activation, which could be onerous. But now it's more subtle, and thus more dangerous. I'm not against the workman being paid for his labor, but it's a shame that so much technological advance got trapped for so long within the confines of Bill Gates' wallet, while open source struggled. But it seems to me that OS is now taking the upper hand.

Mauser wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:03 pm The worst Windows distro was Windows 98se which holds the title of the most unstable piece of garbage and the most Blue Screen Of Deaths.

You must have never tried its immediate successor, Windows Millenium.
I had a very stable 98se install and had encountered others. I've never seen a stable Windows ME machine.

timkb4cq wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:36 pm

Mauser wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:03 pm The worst Windows distro was Windows 98se which holds the title of the most unstable piece of garbage and the most Blue Screen Of Deaths.

You must have never tried its immediate successor, Windows Millenium.
I had a very stable 98se install and had encountered others. I've never seen a stable Windows ME machine.

I've used all of them since W95 (save for W10), either personally or in the workplace. ME was a mistake. It was a beta for XP. Vista got a bad rap based on MSFT selling out to Intel and allowing it to be installed on obsolete hardware. My personal favorite was W2K. It was the last Windows install I had that was my default before screwing up the courage to commit fully to Linux, with Mepis 6.5.

timkb4cq wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:36 pm

Mauser wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:03 pm The worst Windows distro was Windows 98se which holds the title of the most unstable piece of garbage and the most Blue Screen Of Deaths.

You must have never tried its immediate successor, Windows Millenium.
I had a very stable 98se install and had encountered others. I've never seen a stable Windows ME machine.

I have Windows me on my cousins computer. I found Windows me to be more stable than Windows 98se but still not as stable as Windows XP. At least I could go online with Windows me and not have it freeze in 10 minutes. Once I would go online using Windows 98se in no more than 10 minutes it would freeze, if lucky I could unfreeze it using Ctrl Alt Del. If successful after unfreezing in no more than 10 minutes after I would get the Blue Screen Of Death. I don't know what alternate dimension that you are and AVLinux in but it seems to defy reality.

timkb4cq wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:36 pm ...
I had a very stable 98se install and had encountered others.

... Windows98se was my best Windows experience and Windows version too ... it's that why I like using IceWM now.

I had a OK experience w/ Windows 98SE. My old beige box had mostly audio software installed and did not use the Internet that much. A bunch of us refurbished donated computers to give to students that could not afford a computer when 98SE was the rage. A few techs tried to get Linux installed but the group wanted to go Windows (sigh).

I just could not get ME to match the consistency I was getting from 98. I did like the ME DOS tools that supported the (then) larger drives.

I wonder what old vulns are still in today's Windows that can be gleaned from this leak..

The Tramp

I still have a working 98se and it seems very stable.
It is much more frugal with RAM than any recent Linux distro that I know of.

GuiGuy wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:55 pm I still have a working 98se and it seems very stable.
It is much more frugal with RAM than any recent Linux distro.

Obviously. Have you compared it with a linux release from 1998?

anticapitalista wrote: Sun Sep 27, 2020 5:00 pm ............
Obviously. Have you compared it with a linux release from 1998?

No, I lost my SuSe6.2 some time ago due to a PSU failure which fried its hdd.
I expect it would have been more RAM-frugal.