[PLUG] Source code to Windows 9x and ME...

[Johnathan Mantey]

Assuming the thermal conditions in the location of torment were
considerably reduced, having the source code would not be enough.  A good
proportion (all?) of the MS development infrastructure would also need to
be replicated.  I doubt that the source could be run through modern
compilers/linkers/etc... with the result being an operational OS.

My opinion, based on what little I have determined from the thread so far,
is your options include:

   1. Buy as much 20 year old equipment as you can that makes your units
   operate. If you're wedded to keeping the pick and place equipment this is
   probably your best option.
   2. Reverse engineer the functionality of the control and UI systems for
   the unit.  This will take quite some time, and will leave you wondering
   what functionality was missed.
   3. Reverse engineer the functionality of the control uint, and create
   your own UI system. This has the same drawbacks as #2.
   4. Pray that MS releases the source code, and knowledge of how to build
   Win98 (which has probably been lost). In addition Tyco would probably need
   to make the UI source available to permit a modern rewrite. Not sure how
   this helps over option #1.
   5. Request the source for the UI and DOS units from the vendor, and
   perform a rewrite targeting current HW.  If you're looking for source code
   this is far more likely to succeed than relying on MS.  Potentially your
   second best option, though the chance of success is also remote.
   6. Scrap the pick and place unit and get a new system that isn't as
   constrained in HW/SW support.  Saved this for last as the immediate out of
   pocket is probably prohibitive.

Anybody else have other suggestions?


On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 6:57 AM Bill Barry <bill at billbarry.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 8:36 AM Michael C Robinson
> <michael at robinson-west.com> wrote:
> >
> > Is it possible to get the source code to Windows 9x and ME since
> > Microsoft isn't supporting it anymore?
> > One would want to get the source code and then open source it of
> > course.  Even Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 is closed source.  Surely,
> > Microsoft could release pre 9x Windows?  It wouldn't hurt Microsoft at
> > all since Windows
> > is squarely NT based now where many modern systems won't even support
> > DOS let alone DOS based Windows.  I realize it would probably be very
> > expensive to get Microsoft to cough up the source code, but has anyone
> > even looked into this?
> >
> Richard Stallman apparently broached this subject to a Microsoft vice
> president when he visited there to give a talk.
> https://stallman.org/articles/microsoft-talk.html
> It might happen someday.
>
> Bill
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