I dont think they will open source it. It would turn the world against them. It would be the death of MS if the average person found out about the things in windows. As always just my personal opinion. :)~
"That Microsoft Windows is a major supplier of NSA spyware, is commenly known and proven since 1997."
"
"However, as business for Microsoft is not doing so well, Microsoft has announced at the Munich Security Conference last week that they are going to open up "Windows Transparency Centers" all over the world, which will only serve customers that either are governments or governmental organization, or large companies that work for governments.
The reason why Microsoft is setting these centers up, according to Microsoft, is to provide access to the Windows source code to these customers."
Hi Zoltan, can you provide some links for these please? Thanks.
The first quote, actually, is common knowledge.
For the rest, I don't know the exact article, but you can gather a lot of information Here, in the first few articles.
I know Googling things can be a pain, but sometimes there are things that are a culmination of information gathered in time, from several places, that don't really have a defined source.
And trust me, I'm usually the first to ask Zoltan for a link ;)
I think the bigger issue is that as a individuals, we are screwed and our governments are going to have easier access to the ways they can do so. Look microscum is even going to make money helping them do so. Its not transparency it whos the highest bidder on this exploit or that exploit. You can not honestly think this is going to be something good for the people.
That Microsoft Windows is a major supplier of NSA spyware, is commenly known and proven since 1997
Google _NSAKEY. It's also on wikipedia, so yes, common knowledge.
While I agree that some of Zoltan's posts are biased towards linux (I'm sure even he will probably admit to that) this is a legitimate post, he isn't pushing linux, I'm sure there are plenty of people including myself who are interested and appreciate this post.
Don't troll this forum , particularly on legitimate and informative posts.
I don't think that they could loose anymore image, the NSA-revelaitions were just the final straw. All of the computerphile people that i know in person have switched or are in the process of switching to Linux. Allot of "the average people" have gotten free tech-support for windows from computerphiles, and that's definitely going to level off now. I think making windows open source could restore some of the trust.
Guys, just as a general background; here's some things:
1. I post pretty extreme opinionated things. That's what a forum is for in my opinion, a forum is not a newspaper, not a journalistic effort. My posts are - as I have said before - often filled with sophism and irony, read them like that. This is not the politbureau, not a clerical canon, not a bible session, this is an internet forum.
2. The way to leverage knowledge, is to fire away thoughts and let it bounce off of other people that have thoughts to share. A ball bounces longer when it's a bigger ball and it's lauched at a higher speed. SHaring knowledge is what bad teachers do, who wants to be a. mediocre, or b. a teacher? Watch the movie Dead Poets Society, and you'll understand that tame posts are of no use to me myself.
3. I don't hate anything but taxes and the flu virus when I'm on vacation. I don't use Windows because I don't think that it's a product worthy of this day and age, and of modern society. I am very displeased with a lot of things that Microsoft does, just like I am very displeased with a lot of things that open source software developers do. In the open source way, criticism is hard, and I don't see why commercial non-free closed source software products should be spared more than open source products if they do not offer a pleasant experience. So don't come and accuse me of things like Microsoft hate or Canonical hate or RedHat hate or Adobe hate... it's just traditional flaming, it's the way it's done since the 80's, the Internet has gone docile in comparison to the flaming wars of the 80's! I might not understand why Microsoft has never changed Windows (in fact, it might be easy to understand, Windows is very much approved by the US government), but I still am a Microsoft customer, in fact, I probably buy more Microsoft products and services than most of you, in total worth a couple of thousand dollars per annum, and I wouldn't buy those services if they had no added value or if there were a better alternative to get the same task done. I don't dislike everything about Microsoft, I just think that they have made some pretty poor decisions for a company of their stature and resources, and I don't like the predatory way of doing business that has become so popular in the US since the rise of the raiders in the 80's. Asset stripping is not a viable way to make a living. They are very bad to consumers, which is something most forum users are, but they are relatively OK for businesses (even though Windows Server still sucks balls and C++ is a disease more than a tool, there you have it, raw and uncut, lolz).
4. I'm not responsible for the interpretation other give to my posts. My posts are forum posts, that means that they are made to be responded to, to start a discussion, if I were to write something destined to be published in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, I would not post it on a forum. Please remark that I don't consider my posts worthy of blog items, I post them as forum threads, it is not coincidental.
5. If said this before countless times, I don't post much links. It's a forum, users read what they are interested in, research it, think about it, and respond if they want to. My posts are based upon something I read somewhere else than on a forum, why wouldn't anybody else do that? I'm not google...
6. I write while doing other things, mainly in other languages, that means that I don't format, I don't make sentences that are grammatically correct, I type very fast and type my posts in bits and pieces, the forum is open on one virtual desktop, while I'm working on other virtual desktops, etc... short version: there will be crap posts from me, more than enough of them, just like from everybody else. If you don't like it, ignore it, that's what I do with other posts that I come across and that I don't like. Again, it's an internet forum.
7. An internet forum is only worth as much as the forum community is worth. It serves no purpose to make it into a church pamflet. Freedom of opinion is also freedom to disagree, and to ignore. I don't take personal crusades or attacks lightly. One thing that really makes me mad, is not that someone antagonizes me, I do that shit for a living, I almost always play along with that, and believe me, it's nothing, but that someone derogates the principles of a discussion group, which is what a forum is. A forum is not a personal message board, it's a worldwide forum for dialogue in the classical sense.
8. Some of my posts are referred to in blog posts. I did not do that. I'm glad some people are inspired by some of the subjects that interest me, but I have never intended my forum posts to be vehicles for spreading wisdom. I post on this forum for the same reason that I use open source software: for my own benefit... if I post something, it's not because I want people to learn from it, people will learn what they want and if they want, but it's because I want to learn something. Just like I mainly started using open source software because I wanted to learn something that closed source software couldn't learn me, because it didn't make the knowledge available. I'm a firm believer in the open source principle in general, not just in software. I think that it makes no sense to buy a car that you can only use if it comes provided with a factory supplied chauffeur, not because I don't like being carted around by a professional driver, but because I want to learn how to drive and enjoy the experience of driving the car myself. Use that analogy to understand my position towards software, and you'll know all there is to know about why I like open source software. And for those that need a stronger and more trivial analogy because they don't have a driving license yet, can do: people that use closed source software, are like people that go off on watching a porn movie where other people go at it, when they could be fucking themselves.
I agree that windows should go open source just not to governements and those who work for them. It only tells me that they are still hiding alot. This kind of deal will not help the people.
"We will open an international Transparency Center in Brussels, which will offer government customers an increased ability to review our source code. The Brussels center will build upon on our long-standing program that provides government customers with the ability to review our source code, reassure themselves of its integrity and confirm there are no back doors. It is my hope to open the Brussels Transparency Center by the end of this year."
Haha what? To let government official make sure there are no back doors. They might as well just say it's to sell/give them back doors. That's like saying were gonna let the sharks in with the fish so the sharks can make sure they're not eating the fish. But no one else can see the pool of fish and sharks you just have to believe the sharks that want to eat the fish are protecting them not eating them.
that's an astonishingly accurate metaphor
It took me a few tries lol.