Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Well, again, Wikipedia asserts that the entire thing was done using 100% 
> clean-room development,

Huh. Interesting. It's odd how they managed to get every little look pretty 
much exact.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
    Eiffel - The language that lets you specify exactly
    that the code does what you think it does, even if
    it doesn't do what you wanted.

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>> Well, again, Wikipedia asserts that the entire thing was done using 
>> 100% clean-room development,
> 
> Huh. Interesting. It's odd how they managed to get every little look 
> pretty much exact.

Well, if you get somebody to disassemble the code, write down the 
*exact* rendering parameters, and then give just the parameters to the 
guy who writes the new code, then you have "clean-room development", yet 
it looks pretty identical.

But take a closer look: Notepad has a line/column count. The command 
prompt has a different aspect ratio. A lot of icons are completely 
different. And so on. (And let's not forget, a lot of the very basic 
Windows stuff uses quite simple layouts, probably thrown together quite 
quickly.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On 6/22/2010 11:18 AM, Phil Cook v2 wrote:
> And lo On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:16:53 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did
> spake thusly:
>
>> Check out the shutdown message. What's with that?
>
> They Live!
>

I recall a similar quote from Duke Nukem 3D.

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On 6/22/2010 1:12 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> All of which is of course completely irrelevant, since every single tiny
> aspect of all M$ products are covered by 80,000,000 patents, so if this
> product ever starts actually working properly, the developers will still
> be sued off the face of the Earth.


How long do software patents last? I would guess that in the same amount 
of time hardware and virtualization speeds would have increased so much 
that you might as well just run the *actual* OS in VMWare or whatever.

-- 
http://isometricland.com

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On 6/23/2010 8:56 AM, Kyle wrote:
> On 6/22/2010 11:18 AM, Phil Cook v2 wrote:
>> And lo On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:16:53 +0100, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did
>> spake thusly:
>>
>>> Check out the shutdown message. What's with that?
>>
>> They Live!
>>
>
> I recall a similar quote from Duke Nukem 3D.

Yep, it's Dike Nukem.

-- 
http://isometricland.com

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On 6/23/2010 10:19 AM, SharkD wrote:
> On 6/22/2010 1:12 PM, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> All of which is of course completely irrelevant, since every single tiny
>> aspect of all M$ products are covered by 80,000,000 patents, so if this
>> product ever starts actually working properly, the developers will still
>> be sued off the face of the Earth.
>
>
> How long do software patents last? I would guess that in the same amount
> of time hardware and virtualization speeds would have increased so much
> that you might as well just run the *actual* OS in VMWare or whatever.
>
lol More like, for so long, at this point, that you could build a VMWare 
version that "mimics" 4 core processors, while running it on 64 cores, 
while using only 2GB or the 16TB of memory available to your 5 year old 
computer system. The patent system is that screwed up, from what I have 
seen.

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models, 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

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On 6/23/2010 1:43 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> lol More like, for so long, at this point, that you could build a VMWare
> version that "mimics" 4 core processors, while running it on 64 cores,
> while using only 2GB or the 16TB of memory available to your 5 year old
> computer system. The patent system is that screwed up, from what I have
> seen.
>

That sounds like way too many cores. AFAIK multi-core CPUs are just a 
temporary "hack" to resolve heat issues. There's only so much room on a 
motherboard, and with 64 cores you may run out!

-- 
http://isometricland.com

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Darren New wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> Well, again, Wikipedia asserts that the entire thing was done using 100%
>> clean-room development,
> 
> Huh. Interesting. It's odd how they managed to get every little look
> pretty much exact.

What looks exactly?

Note that the GUI widgets are probably all rendered by Wine code...

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>> All of which is of course completely irrelevant, since every single tiny
>> aspect of all M$ products are covered by 80,000,000 patents, so if this
>> product ever starts actually working properly, the developers will still
>> be sued off the face of the Earth.
> 
> How long do software patents last? I would guess that in the same amount 
> of time hardware and virtualization speeds would have increased so much 
> that you might as well just run the *actual* OS in VMWare or whatever.

The problem isn't technology, it's law. ReactOS exists so you can run 
Windows software without actually paying for Windows. (Of course, as I 
pointed out, this doesn't actually work yet.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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On Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:19:24 -0400, SharkD wrote:

> How long do software patents last?

I don't know, but I know a guy who just received one that the application 
went in *8* years ago for.

Jim

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