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Wine 9.0 is now available
(gitlab.winehq.org)
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this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2024
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It's a miracle we have wine at all, reverse engineering an entire operating system isn't easy. Be grateful for what we have (which is already enough to run a ton of software really well)
Still ReactOS performs better in basic Win32 APIs… makes no sense.
Hasn't ReactOS been accused of using code that was not reverse-engineered multiple times? If they became too big MS would probably just sue them.
From what I've heard they used some assembly code directly for very low level functions.
As if the Windows XP source code wasn't leaked already...
That's...not a legal excuse.
In fact that';s an open and shut end to a project if you're caught doing it.
As long as you don't copy code...
It's enough that you have read the code before implementing an alternative to get into legal trouble.
Good luck proving that.
It's happened in the past and is easier than you might think.
What happened in the past was lazy developers cutting corners and effetely copying code and thinking that by switching a few variable names and the order of some operators they would get around the problem.
?? Historically it's been an issue where you need to prove you didn't do it, because otherwise the companies would bury you in legal fees trying to defend yourself. You're like...trying to argue an alternate universe to how this normally plays out.
If you want some APIs implemented, make a feature request; you understand what you want
Unrelated but everytime you end a sentence with an ellipsis I imagine someone's nerdy youtube rantsona with their arms crossed and a sly grin
Have you noticed the the NT / Windows XP source code was leaked years ago. There's isn't much of a need to "reverse engineering", it's just about reading their implementation and providing an alternative implementation that doesn't copy code...
Lol.
Imagine shooting yourselves in the foot like this.
Guess that rule was in place because some people would look at it and proceed to copy it. The rule should be "if you copy code from Microsoft you'll be kicked from the project and the code removed". While I see why this is place and what it protect the project from this is also a very big roadblock to the project's evolution and a clear example of what's wrong with it and why we still have compatibility issues.
That's a lot of words to emphasize you don't understand copyright law
Succinctly.
If only there were ways to subvert copyright law...
Nope, because if you write code and they can prove you were influenced by leaked proprietary code in any way then they will sue the shit out of you and shut you down.
Also see Halt and Catch Fire for a show with this as a plot point. It's very real though.
Well, since it's so easy, go do it.
That sounds difficult though. Didn't companies have to set up ethics walls to protect against lawsuits for things like that?
What are you talking about? There's copyright infringement that when you copy the leaked Windows source code into something like Wine or ReactOS and then there's reading it to understand what Microsoft did and coming up with an alternative implementation that will provide a compatible API for programs to use. There's no "gray zone" or ethical BS - it's either copied or not.
Ah the term I was looking for was "clean room"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_room_design
See the bit about examples and IBM. While you could probably look, the easiest way to defend against a giant tech company's legal team is to do the clean room setup
They are legally not allowed to touch it.