Microsoft reacted swiftly this morning to close down a site distributing the complete source code of its flagship Vista operating system -- but not before dozens of other sites had mirrored the code.
Full story »Microsoft reacted swiftly this morning to close down a site distributing the complete source code of its flagship Vista operating system -- but not before dozens of other sites had mirrored the code.
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16 years 3 weeks 3 days 3 hours ago
Ultimately Useless
Apparently this is joke but assuming it was true, it wouldn't be news to the free software community. Let's pretend that the code has been leaked and that Microsoft did not authorise it. While it may be a win for us individually as we would be able to help ourself by being able to tinker with the code, it would be ultimately useless as we would have no right to help our community; we would not be allowed to share the code or any improvements made to it. We would have to trade improvements outside the covering of the law to make it happen - that is, share it underground, but we shouldn't have to live like that; we should be striving to live upright lives. We should then reject it as useless and invest our efforts into improving, sharing and advocating free software.
Also, please use the term cracker to refer to computer hackers that use their skills to defeating security devices in computer networks in an unauthorised or otherwise malicious manner.