ReactOS, the open source implementation of a Windows XP/2003 compatible operating system, just published a new interview in their series of interviews with ReactOS developers. Today's interview features the most active kernel developer Alex Ionescu.
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Member since:
2005-07-13
Member since:
2005-08-30
You can find out more information about Alex and his reverse engineering projects on his blog at OpenRCE:
http://www.openrce.org/blog/browse/AlexIonescu
"My name is Alex Ionescu, and I'm a reverse engineer"
and http://www.reactos.org/archives/public/ros-dev/2006-January/007393....
He's very good at translating x86 assembly language into C!
Member since:2006-01-27
Thanks for the promotion, but please use http://www.alex-ionescu.com for my blog instead; my OpenRCE blog will soon be linked to it as soon as Pedram finishes the site move.
Best regards,
Alex Ionescu
Member since:
2005-07-06
Member since:
2006-01-27
Member since:
2005-12-23
It's very sad but at the same time quite amusing that Mike McCormack feels the needs to ridicule any new mention of ReactOS on the internet.
He is the ultimate troll, a blueprint for new trolls to come.
Back to the topic in hand. Alex is a great programmer, with a rare skill. It's worth keeping an eye on his blog.
Edited 2006-11-22 08:16
Member since:2005-07-07
There's no doubt Alex is great with a disassembler. The problem is ofcourse that he uses that skill to translate disassembled Microsoft code to C and then commits that to ReactOS, thereby violating Microsofts copyrights. An example of that is the fastcall entry code (referenced by mike_m above).
A quote from the TinyKrnl (one of his projects) FAQ at http://www.tinykrnl.org/about_faq.htm
TinyKRNL is a research project as well as contains possibly Microsoft copyrighted or patented technologies or code
Another quote, from the interview:
It's expected that it [TinyKRNL] will share a lot of its kernel and HAL code with ReactOS
Now, put one and one together and tell me if you still think Alex is the best thing that happened to the ReactOS project.
Alex seems to be very confused about copyright and licenses. The TinyKRNL about page says TinyKRNL will be released under the BSD license but then goes on to state that commercial use is not allowed. The BSD license allows unlimited commercial use. Besides, how you can release code copyrighted by Microsoft under the BSD is beyond me.
Member since:2006-01-27
There is no doubt that GvG has a lot of trouble reading English, so perhaps someone should clarify things for him.
Merging HAL and Kernel code from ReactOS to TinyKRNL is appropriate use of the GPL, because that code will remain GPL licensed.
Secondly, the fast entry call is already written in assembly. Any competent OS developer should know that such low level code cannot be written in C, because registers mush be manually manipulated and precise trap frames created. It would be a pointless excercise to convert assembly to C when this C code is unusable. Since ReactOS does indeed boot, then I guess it's not using any magic C code.
Finally, TinyKRNL does not use the BSD license, as the FAQ page clearly states. It uses its own license which is obtainable from the SVN server in the root folder, and all code specifies this. If GvG had actually done research (instead of another envious attempt at discreditting a developer), he would've seen this file. But perhaps he has and it's not matching with his theories.
If there is a mention of the BSD license on the about page, it is a mistake and probably has already been fixed. As the frontpage mentions (perhaps GvG has not read that either), the webpages are still under construction, and our webmaster has been hospitalized for over a month now. Making sure he recovers from his injuries is more important to me then nagging him about a mistake on the about page, which is meaningless since the important place -- the code -- has the right license.
Once you get popular enough in life, it's normal for you to start having envious people who try to discredit you. Mike_m and GvG are prime examples of this, as their comment history shows. It's unfortunate that their inability to make a name of themselves must result in their attempts to destroy another's name.
Best regards,
Alex Ionescu
Member since:2005-07-07
There is no doubt that GvG has a lot of trouble reading English
Well, English isn't my native language, that's for sure.
Secondly, the fast entry call is already written in assembly
Yeah, I messed up there. In the case of the fast entry call you copied the disassembled code to asm instead of converting it to C. Minor mistake on my part, still a huge mistake on your part. Or are you now claiming the ReactOS fast entry code was written independently by you? Just a fair warning, I still have an email around where you admit to copying the code from Windows.
Merging HAL and Kernel code from ReactOS to TinyKRNL is appropriate use of the GPL, because that code will remain GPL licensed.
Finally, TinyKRNL does not use the BSD license, as the FAQ page clearly states.
Well, no, it clearly states TinyKRNL DOES use the BSD license. At this time (22 nov 18:30 GMT) it says "Because our components are linked with static libraries from the DDK as well as because some of our driver components are based on Microsoft Distributable Code, whose license prohibits usage of an Excluded License (such as the GPL or LGPL), these TinyKRNL components are licensed under the BSD license.".
I have no reason to doubt that the license in the svn tree is different if you say so, but I never made claims about the license in the svn tree, only about the license mentioned on the FAQ.
Member since:2006-01-27
Well, no, it clearly states TinyKRNL DOES use the BSD license. At this time (22 nov 18:30 GMT) it says "Because our components are linked with static libraries from the DDK as well as because some of our driver components are based on Microsoft Distributable Code, whose license prohibits usage of an Excluded License (such as the GPL or LGPL), these TinyKRNL components are licensed under the BSD license.".
You really can't read can you? "some of our driver components." "these TinyKRNL components". Yes, DDK samples are licensed BSD because this is 100% ALLOWED BY THE DDK EULA. Companies all over the WORLD are using samples for their commercial products even. ATI, NVDIA, VMWare, Maxtor, etc. Only the WDK license changed this but we don't use WDK samples.
The rest of the paragraph you quoted says:
"[...]This restriction has led to the creation of the TinyKRNL Shared Source License, which is available in the root folder of the SVN server. Always check the source file to verify which license it belongs to."
Thank you for spreading FUD!
Best regards,
Alex Ionescu
Member since:
2006-03-15
Dear mike, why do you insist with your hate towards reactos and Alex in general and use your every chance to flame them when there is a news item about it on osnews?
I wonder if codeweavers pay you for flaming a wine friendly project, or you are just scared that reactos would put you out of business?
Member since:
2006-11-22
Member since:
2006-07-16
This is getting boring. Mike and GvG are flaming against ReactOS and tell loads of bullshit and everyone tries to shoot back at them by telling the truth. Things like these done by Mike and GvG are a crime in Germany and I'm very sure not only here. We call it "Rufmord" Just sue them to shut up and flame somebody else. Add a nice fee they have to pay if they will do it again.
@ GvG: Once you were one of my Idols in the ReactOS Project. Once... Quite sad that you were assimilated by the enemy (Hi Mike!) Because of some lines that were quite similar to MS Code. Really sad.
Member since:2005-07-07
GvG are flaming against ReactOS and tell loads of bullshit
Please point out any factual errors in my posts. I've already conceded the C/asm mistake for the fast entry call.
everyone tries to shoot back at them by telling the truth
No, the reactions I see are people sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "la la la I can't hear you". Only Alex responded to my arguments.
Once you were one of my Idols in the ReactOS Project. Once... Quite sad that you were assimilated by the enemy
I wasn't in the ReactOS project to be an Idol or to make a name for myself. I was in it for the fun. Alex took the fun out for me, so I left. Oh, BTW, I'm still hosting some (small) scripts on my webserver since the current developers seem to be unable to correctly configure DNS. If I really had a grudge against the ReactOS project I'd have stopped doing that months ago.
For the record, yes, I submitted some patches to Wine but I don't consider myself a Wine developer.
Because of some lines that were quite similar to MS Code.
Far more worysome than "some lines" was the reaction of the (other) developers. You'd expect that these lines would have been taken out asap, but no, almost a year after Hartmuts message they are still in svn HEAD. Heck, the file containing them is even marked as "passed audit"!
Member since:2006-11-22
Far more worysome than "some lines" was the reaction of the (other) developers. You'd expect that these lines would have been taken out asap, but no, almost a year after Hartmuts message they are still in svn HEAD. Heck, the file containing them is even marked as "passed audit"!
janderwald@#reactos [11/22/06 20:19 CET] wrote:
this is not true
the file is not in locked list cose the file was deleted in rev 20936 and the contents was moved to trap.S which is still locked
(part of the contents was moved to trap.S)
can someone with anosnews account please post that?
Member since:2005-07-07
Weird....
svn info svn://svn.reactos.org/reactos/trunk/reactos/ntoskrnl/ke/i386/trap.s
Path: trap.s
Name: trap.s
URL: svn://svn.reactos.org/reactos/trunk/reactos/ntoskrnl/ke/i386/trap.s
Repository Root: svn://svn.reactos.org/reactos
Repository UUID: 97493ccd-5924-5043-b1f5-66cb403b36ce
Revision: 24803
Node Kind: file
Last Changed Author: ion
Last Changed Rev: 24395
Last Changed Date: 2006-10-04 18:00:36 +0200 (Wed, 04 Oct 2006)
This is what a file looks like which is locked:
svn info svn://svn.reactos.org/reactos/trunk/reactos/ntoskrnl/ke/profile.c
Path: profile.c
Name: profile.c
URL: svn://svn.reactos.org/reactos/trunk/reactos/ntoskrnl/ke/profile.c
Repository Root: svn://svn.reactos.org/reactos
Repository UUID: 97493ccd-5924-5043-b1f5-66cb403b36ce
Revision: 24803
Node Kind: file
Last Changed Author: audit
Last Changed Rev: 21252
Last Changed Date: 2006-03-08 21:03:59 +0100 (Wed, 08 Mar 2006)
Lock Token: opaquelocktoken:634ab742-840e-0410-a072-e659af5f3666
Lock Owner: audit
Lock Created: 2006-03-09 00:38:44 +0100 (Thu, 09 Mar 2006)
Lock Comment (1 line):
audit lock
The trap.s file is also not listed in http://www.reactos.org/generated/locked_files.log
Member since:2006-01-27
FUD... FUD... more FUD...
This is how we count locked files:
http://www.alex-ionescu.com/fud.jpg
Notice that needs lock is ON.
Best regards,
Alex Ionescu
Member since:
2006-07-16
Member since:
2006-07-16
Member since:2006-11-24
If you do not know how the audit works, ...
If you are an expert for the audit, you may explain for example the status of ntoskrnl/io/pnpmgr/pnpdma.c. The file was locked for the audit with rev 21252. This file was included in the commit of rev 22747 from Alex. And now, the file is unlocked.
And you are just an Idiot, ...
...just shut up and do not spread shitty lies.
If yours ReactOS guys lose the arguments, yours become very childish...
