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

[Thomas Groman]

On Thu, 26 Sep 2019 09:02:44 -0700 (PDT)
"Rodney W. Grimes" <freebsd at gndrsh.dnsmgr.net> 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.  
> 
> My general feel is "not going to happen" there are probably things
> MS considers trade secrets buried in that code and no way in H*ll
> are they about to put TS at risk by releasing the code without a
> disclosure enforcing licenses.  Yes, there are people who have
> access to this source code, no I am not one.
> 
> It may be ancient code, but a TS is a TS and if you go release it
> as open source it is no longer a secret and your now out any legal
> path to enforce your TS.
> 

One of those 'trade secrets' includes the _NSAKEY, which is still in
modern windows releases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSAKEY