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For those of you that don't know, there's a thing called ReactOS. It's a
free operating system which is supposed to be binary-compatible with
Microsoft Windows XP. (Despite the small and obvious problem that this
_should_ be 100% illegal.)
Well anyway, the CD image is only about 50 MB, so I downloaded it and
had a go at running it.
First of all, I'm using versio 0.3.11, and it's buggy as hell. Windows
randomly vanish into thin air, programs lock up, and at one point I
managed to make the desktop and task bar vanish, leaving me with just
the backdrop image. You *can* do stuff with it, but it's very unreliable.
Aside from that... it looks almost *scarily* like Windows XP. Or maybe
NT4, I'm not sure. Some of it is quite different, some is very similar.
There's quite big chunks of stuff missing of course. (E.g., the event
viewer... doesn't.) I tried to map a network drive and discovered that
the command isn't implemented. That kind of thing.
Then again, I had a go at running a few *real* Windows programs, and
they do in fact run, which is already fantastically unlikely. Obviously
all the programs I tried crashed almost instantly, but almost all of
them did run briefly before dying. That alone ought to be impossible,
but somehow they've managed it.
Of course, the only things I happen to have ISO images for are big,
complex programs with intricate installation routines - exactly the kind
of thing you'd expect to not work. Since I can't get network access to
work right, I can't easily try anything else. Pitty, it would be
interesting to see whether any of the stuff I've written works...
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So this is what it looks like running:
Post a reply to this message
Attachments:
Download 'reactos 0.png' (31 KB)
Download 'reactos 1.png' (216 KB)
Preview of image 'reactos 0.png'
Preview of image 'reactos 1.png'
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Out of the box, ReactOS comes with all the usual useless junk - MS
Paint, Notepad (!!), several utterly crappy games, and so on. It's even
got WordPad. (WTF?) You also get slightly more useful things like Task
Manager and Explorer.
Tell me, does this or does this not really really look like the real
thing? o_O
Post a reply to this message
Attachments:
Download 'reactos 2.png' (23 KB)
Download 'reactos 3.png' (45 KB)
Download 'reactos 4.png' (48 KB)
Download 'reactos 5.png' (17 KB)
Download 'reactos 6.png' (16 KB)
Download 'reactos 7.png' (13 KB)
Preview of image 'reactos 2.png'
Preview of image 'reactos 3.png'
Preview of image 'reactos 4.png'
Preview of image 'reactos 5.png'
Preview of image 'reactos 6.png'
Preview of image 'reactos 7.png'
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Check out the shutdown message. What's with that?
Post a reply to this message
Attachments:
Download 'reactos 8.png' (3 KB)
Preview of image 'reactos 8.png'
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On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:11:51 +0200, Invisible <voi### [at] dev null> wrote:
> So this is what it looks like running:
>
Copyright ReactOS Foundation 1996-2009. Yeah right...
-Nekar Xenos-
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On 6/22/2010 8:14 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Tell me, does this or does this not really really look like the real
> thing? o_O
Cute... It pretends to be windows, but isn't...
--
~Mike
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Mike Raiford wrote:
> Cute... It pretends to be windows, but isn't...
Cute or horrifying, depending on your point of view. There are some
things about Windows that you wouldn't *want* to copy!
Even so, many things look very similar yet not quite right. (E.g., that
command prompt has a totally different aspect ratio.)
I haven't managed to get it to successfully run any real Windows
programs yet, but that's probably mostly due to the difficulty of
getting them into the VM without VMware Tools [which, astonishingly,
won't install ;-) ]
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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!
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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Nekar Xenos wrote:
> Copyright ReactOS Foundation 1996-2009. Yeah right...
Wikipedia claims the first release was in 1998, so I guess it's
*plausible*...
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Invisible wrote:
> Nekar Xenos wrote:
>
>> Copyright ReactOS Foundation 1996-2009. Yeah right...
>
> Wikipedia claims the first release was in 1998, so I guess it's
> *plausible*...
Except for the copyright violations, at least. I strongly suspect there was
no clean-room development going on there.
--
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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>>> Copyright ReactOS Foundation 1996-2009. Yeah right...
>>
>> Wikipedia claims the first release was in 1998, so I guess it's
>> *plausible*...
>
> Except for the copyright violations, at least. I strongly suspect there
> was no clean-room development going on there.
Well, again, Wikipedia asserts that the entire thing was done using 100%
clean-room development, and that they've done extensive internal code
audits to make sure everything is legal.
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.
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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On 6/22/2010 7:59 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Mike Raiford wrote:
>
>> Cute... It pretends to be windows, but isn't...
>
> Cute or horrifying, depending on your point of view. There are some
> things about Windows that you wouldn't *want* to copy!
>
> Even so, many things look very similar yet not quite right. (E.g., that
> command prompt has a totally different aspect ratio.)
>
That aspect ratio issue is entirely dependent on font. You can change
that even in Windows, and, stupidly, some of the *sizes* are based on
.FON fonts, which have a completely different ration than the .TTF fonts
used for the other sizes. It doesn't scale them, or otherwise allow you
to set an arbitrary size, but is purely *fixed* to what ever internal
sizes exist in the font definition files. Got to be the stupidest, and
most annoying, aspect of the whole damn thing, especially if you planned
to have a "small" copy open, to look at something, but still have it
legible, while working in other, also open, windows, without having to
alt-tab between them. Hint - the small enough one for that, isn't
legible at all (well, unless maybe you had a display 40 inches wide..).
--
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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>> Even so, many things look very similar yet not quite right. (E.g., that
>> command prompt has a totally different aspect ratio.)
>>
> That aspect ratio issue is entirely dependent on font. You can change
> that even in Windows, and, stupidly, some of the *sizes* are based on
> .FON fonts, which have a completely different ration than the .TTF fonts
> used for the other sizes. It doesn't scale them, or otherwise allow you
> to set an arbitrary size, but is purely *fixed* to what ever internal
> sizes exist in the font definition files. Got to be the stupidest, and
> most annoying, aspect of the whole damn thing, especially if you planned
> to have a "small" copy open, to look at something, but still have it
> legible, while working in other, also open, windows, without having to
> alt-tab between them. Hint - the small enough one for that, isn't
> legible at all (well, unless maybe you had a display 40 inches wide..).
Yeah, it's no secret that the Windows command prompt thing isn't
brilliant. (The number of people who complain about it not supporting
ANSI escape sequences is staggering, for example.)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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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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And lo On Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:22:31 +0100, SharkD
<pos### [at] gmailcom> did spake thusly:
> 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.
Close, the quote from DN is "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum...
and I'm all outta gum." The original They Live is a more formal "I have
come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum"
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> For those of you that don't know, there's a thing called ReactOS. It's a
> free operating system which is supposed to be binary-compatible with
> Microsoft Windows XP. (Despite the small and obvious problem that this
> _should_ be 100% illegal.)
Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
It's not much different from making an emulator, and those aren't illegal.
It would be illegal for them to lift binaries (eg. system libraries) from
Windows XP and distributing them alongside their own OS, but it's perfectly
legal for them to build their own versions of those binaries.
--
- Warp
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Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> For those of you that don't know, there's a thing called ReactOS. It's a
>> free operating system which is supposed to be binary-compatible with
>> Microsoft Windows XP. (Despite the small and obvious problem that this
>> _should_ be 100% illegal.)
>
> Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
> would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
> It's not much different from making an emulator, and those aren't illegal.
>
> It would be illegal for them to lift binaries (eg. system libraries) from
> Windows XP and distributing them alongside their own OS, but it's perfectly
> legal for them to build their own versions of those binaries.
I was under the impression that things like (for example) the API for
DirectX is patented, and therefore you can't write a library that has
the same API (i.e., the same functions with the same names and
signatures that do the same thing).
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Invisible wrote:
> You *can* do stuff with it, but it's very unreliable.
Sounds like perfect Windows emulation to me!
Regards,
John
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Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> For those of you that don't know, there's a thing called ReactOS. It's a
>> free operating system which is supposed to be binary-compatible with
>> Microsoft Windows XP. (Despite the small and obvious problem that this
>> _should_ be 100% illegal.)
>
> Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
> would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
> It's not much different from making an emulator, and those aren't illegal.
>
> It would be illegal for them to lift binaries (eg. system libraries) from
> Windows XP and distributing them alongside their own OS, but it's perfectly
> legal for them to build their own versions of those binaries.
There may be a term in the EULA which prohibits reverse engineering. It
does not strike me as terribly likely that someone managed to write a
Windows OS clone without doing that.
Regards,
John
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>> You *can* do stuff with it, but it's very unreliable.
>
> Sounds like perfect Windows emulation to me!
Heheh. What, you mean like this?
http://www.slimeland.com/winsim/
I would say, Win 3.x was quite reliable (then again, it doesn't *do*
anything), Win 9x was fairly unstable, Win NT was much better, Win XP
was initially hopeless, and now Win XP has got to the point where it
usually works just fine. Certinaly it doesn't crash just because you
open Notepad; ReactOS does. Like, in ReactOS, you can just open an
Explorer window, click on a few things, and then you notice that the
mouse has stopped moving and the system is using 100% CPU, and the
keyboard isn't responding, and...
I haven't seen the Blue Screen of Death from ReactOS yet. Maybe they
haven't implemented that part?
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John VanSickle wrote:
> There may be a term in the EULA which prohibits reverse engineering. It
> does not strike me as terribly likely that someone managed to write a
> Windows OS clone without doing that.
Depends on what you count as "reverse engineering". If you just mean
"disassembly", then I'd say you probably can write something functional
just by reading the API documentation and running tests to see how the
M$ implementation behaves in various situations. If you count "running
tests to see how the M$ implementation behaves" as reverse engineering
then no, not really...
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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I was under the impression that things like (for example) the API for
> DirectX is patented, and therefore you can't write a library that has
> the same API (i.e., the same functions with the same names and
> signatures that do the same thing).
Patents are not international. US patents are not recognized here (and
vice-versa, of course).
--
- Warp
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Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> I was under the impression that things like (for example) the API for
>> DirectX is patented, and therefore you can't write a library that has
>> the same API (i.e., the same functions with the same names and
>> signatures that do the same thing).
>
> Patents are not international. US patents are not recognized here (and
> vice-versa, of course).
OK. But what's to say that M$ haven't patented the same thing in every
single duristiction that they operate in?
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Warp wrote:
> Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
> would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
It would probably be the "look and feel" lawsuits, even ignoring the patent
problems.
--
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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John VanSickle wrote:
> There may be a term in the EULA which prohibits reverse engineering.
... which *used* to be unenforceable in the US, since copyright law is
federal and allows reverse engineering, while EULAs are contract law which
is state law.
The DMCA and all that probably changed this in the 30+ years since I learned
that, tho.
--
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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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> OK. But what's to say that M$ haven't patented the same thing in every
> single duristiction that they operate in?
The fact that software cannot be patented in most countries. The EU doesn't
acknowledge software patents.
--
- Warp
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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
> > would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
> It would probably be the "look and feel" lawsuits, even ignoring the patent
> problems.
I have hard time believing that trade dress laws apply to basic computer
user interfaces. Else Microsoft could sue the creators of KDE and Gnome for
copying their windowing ideas (not to talk that Apple could probably sue
Microsoft for the same thing, as windowing was probably implemented in Apple
computers before Windows)l
--
- Warp
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Warp wrote:
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>> Warp wrote:
>>> Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
>>> would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
>
>> It would probably be the "look and feel" lawsuits, even ignoring the patent
>> problems.
>
> I have hard time believing that trade dress laws apply to basic computer
> user interfaces.
It's copyright law here. Basically, the original lawsuit was over greeting
cards. One company hired people to think up and design greeting cards. At
another company, the CEO would go into stores and buy up competitor cards he
liked, then give them to his workers who would draw new pictures but give
the same basic "look and feel" to the cards. One example was a card with a
cute little girl in a sun dress and bonnet, and inside it said "I wuv you."
The competitor drew it with a pink background instead of blue, put a
teddy-bear instead of a girl, and put the same text inside. So the artwork
was all original, and the text wasn't copyrightable, but the overall
look-and-feel was (for better or worse) judged to be subject to copyright.
It's nothing to do with "trade dress", which is more like trademarks than
copyright. Microsoft wasn't making any products that could be confused with
Apple's products, which is what trademark is about.
> (not to talk that Apple could probably sue
> Microsoft for the same thing,
Indeed, Apple is the one that started applying "look-and-feel" to Microsoft
in a lawsuit over the UI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corporation
Unfortunately, the "look-and-feel" argument has been applied so much to
software that I can't easily track down the original lawsuit over greeting
cards that set off the whole "look-and-feel is subject to copyright even if
all the actual text and artwork is new" stuff. Altho I did find one
reference that greeting cards are the *second* most litigated look-and-feel
suit. :-)
--
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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On 6/23/2010 12:09 PM, SharkD wrote:
> 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!
>
Intel already has a 32 core system. They have given test models out to
various experts, to do their debugging/testing for them, to see how well
they work. Note, this isn't 32 cores on X chips. Its 32 cores on **one**
chip, so the issue is how much you can cram on the chip, not how much
room there is on the MB.
--
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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Patrick Elliott wrote:
> Intel already has a 32 core system.
It also depends what you want the "core" to do. A 32-core x86 processor?
Awesome. A 32-core FORTH processor? Yawn.
--
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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On 6/24/2010 4:28 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Warp wrote:
>> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>> For those of you that don't know, there's a thing called ReactOS.
>>> It's a free operating system which is supposed to be
>>> binary-compatible with Microsoft Windows XP. (Despite the small and
>>> obvious problem that this _should_ be 100% illegal.)
>>
>> Why would it be illegal? There's no law in any country I know of which
>> would forbid building a system which is capable of running an program.
>> It's not much different from making an emulator, and those aren't
>> illegal.
>>
>> It would be illegal for them to lift binaries (eg. system libraries) from
>> Windows XP and distributing them alongside their own OS, but it's
>> perfectly
>> legal for them to build their own versions of those binaries.
>
> I was under the impression that things like (for example) the API for
> DirectX is patented, and therefore you can't write a library that has
> the same API (i.e., the same functions with the same names and
> signatures that do the same thing).
Actually.. No. An API is an "interface". The underlying way that it goes
from, "I gave it this data", to, "It gave me this result", is what is
patented, not the API itself. Otherwise emulating **anything**,
including the BIOS, which you need to do things like DOSBox, would be
illegal too.
--
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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>> Intel already has a 32 core system.
>
> It also depends what you want the "core" to do. A 32-core x86 processor?
> Awesome. A 32-core FORTH processor? Yawn.
I have a processor with 192 cores, capable of generating about 700
GFLOPS of compute power. And it's not even an expensive research
prototype. It's an off-the-shelf component. It's called a GPU. ;-)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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>> OK. But what's to say that M$ haven't patented the same thing in every
>> single duristiction that they operate in?
>
> The fact that software cannot be patented in most countries. The EU doesn't
> acknowledge software patents.
Oh, right. I didn't know that.
Does this mean that software patents actually don't get granted? Or just
that hypothetically you could go to court to have them revoked?
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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>> I was under the impression that things like (for example) the API for
>> DirectX is patented.
> Actually.. No. An API is an "interface". The underlying way that it goes
> from, "I gave it this data", to, "It gave me this result", is what is
> patented, not the API itself.
Really? Interesting. What underlies the API calls is obviously subject
to _copyright_ protection, but I didn't think you could _patent_
executable code. However, I thought that you *can* patent an API.
> Otherwise emulating **anything**,
> including the BIOS, which you need to do things like DOSBox, would be
> illegal too.
Only illegal if the BIOS interface is patented. (AFAIK, it isn't.) The
actual BIOS code in any given motherboard has copyright protection
[usually], but then it only works with one given motherboard anyway...
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Patrick Elliott wrote:
> is what is patented, not the API itself.
Really, it depends what's in the patent.
For example, if you patent aspects of the MP3 data stream format, then any
API that accepts an MP3 data stream as input or generates it as output would
not be implementable without licensing the patent.
--
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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>> (not to talk that Apple could probably sue
>> Microsoft for the same thing,
Um... they did?
> Indeed, Apple is the one that started applying "look-and-feel" to
> Microsoft in a lawsuit over the UI.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corporation
Oh thank god... It's nice to know my memory isn't *completely* defective!
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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Invisible wrote:
> I haven't seen the Blue Screen of Death from ReactOS yet. Maybe they
> haven't implemented that part?
Maybe they did, but it's so buggy that it always fails.
Regards,
John
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>> The fact that software cannot be patented in most countries. The EU
>> doesn't
>> acknowledge software patents.
>
> Oh, right. I didn't know that.
>
> Does this mean that software patents actually don't get granted? Or just
> that hypothetically you could go to court to have them revoked?
If it's a clear cut software-only or algorithm-only with no physical
application it will be rejected, in fact you'd be dumb to waste the money
trying to apply for a patent, no legal firm would advise you to do this.
*But*, if it applies to some physical object that can actually be made, then
the algorithm/program *can* be patented. For example a novel image
processing algorithm for improving display quality on a display is fine, or
a control program for a crane, that sort of thing.
As you can imagine though, there is a huge grey area in the middle, so
probably some things get through that wouldn't be enforceable in court.
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scott wrote:
>>> The fact that software cannot be patented in most countries. The EU
>>> doesn't
>>> acknowledge software patents.
>>
>> Oh, right. I didn't know that.
>>
>> Does this mean that software patents actually don't get granted? Or
>> just that hypothetically you could go to court to have them revoked?
>
> If it's a clear cut software-only or algorithm-only with no physical
> application it will be rejected, in fact you'd be dumb to waste the
> money trying to apply for a patent, no legal firm would advise you to do
> this.
>
> *But*, if it applies to some physical object that can actually be made,
> then the algorithm/program *can* be patented. For example a novel image
> processing algorithm for improving display quality on a display is fine,
> or a control program for a crane, that sort of thing.
>
> As you can imagine though, there is a huge grey area in the middle, so
> probably some things get through that wouldn't be enforceable in court.
Right. So as long as M$ describes the DirectX API as "a system for
allowing cool programs to run on our OS and nobody else's", they can
patent it. And then sue ReactOS for implementing it.
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>> If it's a clear cut software-only or algorithm-only with no physical
>> application it will be rejected, in fact you'd be dumb to waste the money
>> trying to apply for a patent, no legal firm would advise you to do this.
>>
>> *But*, if it applies to some physical object that can actually be made,
>> then the algorithm/program *can* be patented. For example a novel image
>> processing algorithm for improving display quality on a display is fine,
>> or a control program for a crane, that sort of thing.
>>
>> As you can imagine though, there is a huge grey area in the middle, so
>> probably some things get through that wouldn't be enforceable in court.
>
> Right. So as long as M$ describes the DirectX API as "a system for
> allowing cool programs to run on our OS and nobody else's", they can
> patent it.
Not in the EU they can't, because it does not apply to some physical object
that can only be made utilising this patent. At a stretch they might be
able to get away with some GUI concept applied to a mobile device they were
manufacturing, but it's going to have to be quite a high level concept (eg a
novel way to select images from a database using a touch screen) rather than
an API.
> And then sue ReactOS for implementing it.
There is no way to successfully sue anyone in the EU for patent infringement
if you're not dealing with anything physical.
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And lo On Fri, 25 Jun 2010 09:01:40 +0100, scott <sco### [at] scottcom> did
spake thusly:
<snip>
> There is no way to successfully sue anyone in the EU for patent
> infringement if you're not dealing with anything physical.
However that's just patents there are also trademarks which enforce the
'style' of something and that doesn't just apply to the physical. As for
whether that or even overseas patents are enforceable you have to look out
for TRIPs. In theory TRIPs allows non-physical patents and therefore any
signatory to TRIPs has to uphold them.
--
Phil Cook
--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com
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