OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/17975/Enthusiasts_Progress_with_Plans_to_Resurrect_Windows_Longhorn_ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:51:19 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Um http://osnews.com/thread?243107 http://osnews.com/thread?243107 Think I will do Copeland reloaded Fri, 25 May 2007 17:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (transputer_guy) Comments RE: Um http://osnews.com/thread?243114 http://osnews.com/thread?243114 I will take care of XP SP3 Fri, 25 May 2007 17:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Larz) Comments RE[2]: Um http://osnews.com/thread?243116 http://osnews.com/thread?243116 Go for something more ambitious please. Like Duke Nukem Forever ;)

EDIT: Fixed a typo.Edited 2007-05-25 17:57 Fri, 25 May 2007 17:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (dylansmrjones) Comments Hmm... http://osnews.com/thread?243117 http://osnews.com/thread?243117 While I am a fan of revival projects, this project is on too shaky legal ground for me... It'd be easier to add on the features they're seeking to an already-extant OS.

I'm wondering if SkyOS's BranchFS is doing now what WinFS would have been doing now if they hadn't cancelled it... Fri, 25 May 2007 17:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Almafeta) Comments I'll stick my neck out http://osnews.com/thread?243120 http://osnews.com/thread?243120 ...And say that this is a supreme waste of effort that will amount to nought in the long run. Even if they pull it of, it will still have no future.

It's a shame. There are lots of worthwhile open source projects that could do with the manpower. Fri, 25 May 2007 17:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (overflow) Comments RE: I'll stick my neck out http://osnews.com/thread?243127 http://osnews.com/thread?243127 Cynical, but well said.

IANAL, but I'm pretty sure "Longhorn Reloaded" could very easily run into legal trouble.

This reminds of when, a long while back, a "revival" of Rhapsody was started (http://osnews.com/story.php/6130/Introducing-the-Rhapsody-Project). Sadly, it didn't get anywhere, and that will probably the case with this. Fri, 25 May 2007 18:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (shykid) Comments What good fun. http://osnews.com/thread?243128 http://osnews.com/thread?243128 I am astonished that nobody is saying "go for it", and it sounds like a interesting complement to Reactos or even Wine, but people should work on what *they* want to work on...its their time. The project is even replacing IE7 with a Firefox under the dubious name "Longzilla Explorer." Fri, 25 May 2007 18:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (cyclops) Comments RE: What good fun. http://osnews.com/thread?243134 http://osnews.com/thread?243134
... it sounds like a interesting complement to Reactos or even Wine...

If by complement you mean filling a similar ecological niche then, yes.
But Reactos and Wine certainly cannot use any code from this project without running into massive legal trouble. Fri, 25 May 2007 18:21:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (RandomGuy) Comments RE: What good fun. http://osnews.com/thread?243140 http://osnews.com/thread?243140 Thanks a lot. "Longzilla Explorer" made my drink run out of my nose. That name is just... inherently funny to me.

I'm a huge fan of OS revival projects. I want to see potential in this, but the thing is, it's legally shoddy because it uses somebody else's work. Because of that, it's less likely to get anywhere until that changes. (And I seriously don't see Microsoft giving this project their blessing.) Developers would be unwilling to work on LR if their work goes nowhere thanks to a cease & desist order. Also, without access to Longhorn's code, only so much can be done.

Despite this, I think it would be pretty badass if they sit this on top of ReactOS (when/if both mature enough, of course). Fri, 25 May 2007 18:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (shykid) Comments Uh-uh ... http://osnews.com/thread?243142 http://osnews.com/thread?243142 -----------------
"We haven't currently suffered any threats from Microsoft, maybe because Longhorn is considered abandonware, I don't know," Jemaho said. "Also I'm (not) a 100% sure that they are aware of the LHR (Longhorn Reloaded) situation. "


When I asked Microsoft about the Longhorn Reloaded team's efforts in October 2006, here is the response I received from a Microsoft spokeswoman:

"Microsoft actively encourages and supports independent developers to take advantage of the features available in our platform to create their own applications and services; however, the Windows end user licensing agreement does not allow users to modify and redistribute our code in this manner."
-------------

"Abandonware"?? They even use MS trademarks casually...:D Poor guys, they don't see it coming. Either they are incredibly naive or MS is somehow involved. Fri, 25 May 2007 18:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (wannabe geek) Comments RE: I'll stick my neck out http://osnews.com/thread?243143 http://osnews.com/thread?243143 Well, I suppose "waste of effort" is subjective. You could be doing it just for fun and it's not really a waste of effort because you've done something you enjoyed and maybe learned something along the way. So "because I can" could be enough to make it worth while for someone. Fri, 25 May 2007 18:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (vimh) Comments yeah http://osnews.com/thread?243144 http://osnews.com/thread?243144 the "wow" starts NOW! Fri, 25 May 2007 18:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (SK8T) Comments I don't get it? http://osnews.com/thread?243145 http://osnews.com/thread?243145 What exactly are they doing?

Are they finishing off Windows coding for them? It's closed source, so....

Are they just adding in programs to the last update of Longhorn? In which case the operating system can't progress past it's current "reloaded" state (closed source again).

I don't think Microsoft will be pleased with people tinkering with their precious source code (feel free to add Gollum inflection). Fri, 25 May 2007 18:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (MiliTux) Comments Gone already? http://osnews.com/thread?243149 http://osnews.com/thread?243149 I'm getting a 404 error when I click on the download link for the ISO... Fri, 25 May 2007 19:05:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bkavanaugh) Comments Longhorn looks like crap http://osnews.com/thread?243152 http://osnews.com/thread?243152 I wonder what exactly they want from Longhorn?

Looking at some of the screenshots it looks like crap compared to the final version of Vista. Fri, 25 May 2007 19:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (chris_dk) Comments RE: Gone already? http://osnews.com/thread?243154 http://osnews.com/thread?243154
I'm getting a 404 error when I click on the download link for the ISO...


I guess MicroSoft wasted no time and gave them the MacroShaft as soon as they stopped talking and started distributing =P


(Nothing unexpected, though. Probably Cease & Desist; for this enthusiast group's sake, i hope it doesn't evolve into full blown prosecution)

Edit: what a surprise: grammar.Edited 2007-05-25 19:30 Fri, 25 May 2007 19:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (meianoite) Comments +-+++-+ http://osnews.com/thread?243160 http://osnews.com/thread?243160 >..And say that this is a supreme waste of effort that >will amount to nought in the long run. Even if they pull >it of, it will still have no future.

>It's a shame. There are lots of worthwhile open source >projects that could do with the manpower.

As much as you have the right to your opinion, I believe that in the open source movement we also have the right, with out prejudice, to work, within legal boundaries, on what ever we please. I believe that to be one of the greatest freedoms that the community has. I certainly don't work for anyone when I write open source software, what I do in my spare time is my decision, whether you approve of what I do is obsoletely none of your business. Are you suggesting we should all spend our time on what you think is important? Fri, 25 May 2007 19:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (snowflake) Comments RE: Uh-uh ... http://osnews.com/thread?243169 http://osnews.com/thread?243169 I concur, and would add that according to trademark law, Microsoft MUST come after them, while copyright law doesn't REQUIRE them to defend it legally.

Perhaps the only reason they've not gotten letters yet is because they simply didn't have enough readily found links for those that work for Microsoft in some manner to have stumbled across them, but there's little doubt they'll no longer be below Microsoft's radar with this amount of publicity.

If they have even one iota of wisdom (which their current situation indicates they don't) as soon as they get the cease and desist letter, they will abide by it. Otherwise, the longest part of the trial of this will be enumerating all they've done legally wrong, combined with the sentencing: it won't require anything on Microsoft's part to convince anyone how far these idiots have violated them. Fri, 25 May 2007 20:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JonathanBThompson) Comments It's OS/2 All Over Again http://osnews.com/thread?243172 http://osnews.com/thread?243172 Reminds me of all those "Warped" people who couldn't accept that IBM had really dumped OS/2. The rationale was quite similar: Better to hang on to something "superior," even if it isn't supported by the original developer. In the end most of the OS/2 folks gravitated to Linux. Perhaps these LHR folks follow a similar course and become the next wave of rabid Penguin-huggers.

More at my blog:

http://weblog.infoworld.com/enterprisedesktop/

RCKEdited 2007-05-25 20:33 Fri, 25 May 2007 20:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rkennedy01) Comments RE[2]: I stuck my neck out http://osnews.com/thread?243173 http://osnews.com/thread?243173 I later joined with the Rhapsody Project [x86] as an Archivist/Researcher.

RacerX's Rhapsody Page:

http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/apple/rhapsody/faq.html

It was a 1 step forward - 2 steps back kinda thing. But a real education in "searching".

Fravia's

http://www.searchlores.org/

I personally would have liked to have pursued Copland:

Mac OS 8 Revealed [Copland] The Real OS 8:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201479559/qid=1152563948/sr=1-16/...

We arguably found the first Darwin release, and other tid-bits scattered around, old Developer CDs [which are cool as hell] and the Apple site was the most help, but they had "cleaned up" after themselves real well™.
We got former Gurus that practically made the sign of the cross as they backed away from us, all the time wishing us "luck".
I theorized, privately, we'd run into crown jewels territory by the difficulty we encountered.
It pretty much fell apart on it's own, because of [wait for it] ... drivers.
It was for fun mainly, and IT was fun.

Months later and unrelated (?), the site was hacked and so was I [seriously, and we have Macs]. Did we strike a nerve with someone?
Who knows.
I don't know, we'd all pretty much gone our own way and it was dead for many reasons.

As for these Blokes at Longhorn Reloaded, I'm wishing you "luck".
Really.
;-)

hylas Fri, 25 May 2007 20:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (hylas) Comments RE: +-+++-+ http://osnews.com/thread?243175 http://osnews.com/thread?243175 Uh, in this case there's a very grave question of legal boundaries...

If there weren't, I have no doubt that Wine and ReactOS would be interested in what those people manage to come up with. Fri, 25 May 2007 20:42:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (DigitalAxis) Comments This has got to be http://osnews.com/thread?243181 http://osnews.com/thread?243181 One of the most misguided efforts I've ever seen, I believe it is actually a project by law students, to see how trademark law works Fri, 25 May 2007 21:24:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (BluenoseJake) Comments Dead end http://osnews.com/thread?243184 http://osnews.com/thread?243184 I realy hate to say this, since I am a alternative OS freak in general, but I'm afraid this project is going no where.

Why don't the coders simply hook up with the ReactOS project, who could use a couple of additional coders?

ReactOS is a respectable project IMHO, you guys could invest your coding skills in this project.

What a shame, what a waste of good coding skills ;-( Fri, 25 May 2007 21:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ml2mst) Comments RE: Dead end http://osnews.com/thread?243186 http://osnews.com/thread?243186 Reactos come on give me a break what they should have finished by now is the gui /drivers support and filesystem instead they prioritize that no-good bloatware like IE-integration.
They say it can be uninstalled but i had no luck with that. Fri, 25 May 2007 21:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WyldStylist) Comments RE[2]: Dead end http://osnews.com/thread?243188 http://osnews.com/thread?243188 Well, if you think you can do better than the coders of the ReactOS project, surprise us :-)

If you can't come up with something better than ReactOS yourself, I guess, you don't have the right to complain :-p Fri, 25 May 2007 22:01:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ml2mst) Comments RE: Longhorn looks like crap http://osnews.com/thread?243190 http://osnews.com/thread?243190 Not everything in this world is about pure looks - some pretty neat features where planned with Longhorn.
Vista is just "good looks" on a 2003 server bed, full of hacks. Fri, 25 May 2007 22:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flywheel) Comments RE[2]: Longhorn looks like crap http://osnews.com/thread?243212 http://osnews.com/thread?243212 Yes, I'm sure you know enough about the inner workings of Windows Vista to make that statement. Not.

Also, this project is a dead end. That Longhorn code base was extremely buggy and crash prone. Longhorn Revived will be DOA in my opinion. That is if it even arrives without the Microsoft lawyers tearing it to tiny little pieces. Sat, 26 May 2007 00:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Nelson) Comments Move along, nothing to see here. http://osnews.com/thread?243223 http://osnews.com/thread?243223 This project seems to be manned by a bunch of stupid kids who have a rudimentary grasp of photoshop and want to reskin an outdated beta grade proprietary OS and maybe make some binary hacks along the way, the upshot of which is all going to be of questionable legality and certainly less than desirable, who would want to run a broken version of windows which never receives updates?

The idea that this manpower could be better used elsewhere is probably a little wide of the mark, as long as they're just messing around with this thing at least they aren't getting in the way on any serious projects, the world needs MS fanboi fundamentalists about as much as i need a hole in the head.

Is Joejoe some kind of skr1ptk1dd1e krèche?

Of course if they were making use of code which they actually had some rights to, reactos for instance, i'd be somewhat less dismissive. Sat, 26 May 2007 02:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (anonybrowse) Comments Just imagines... http://osnews.com/thread?243242 http://osnews.com/thread?243242 All this running on ReactOS...

Yes, I understand the absurdity of all this. But, imagine the OSS community releasing a full featured version of "Longhorn", where Microsoft couldn't.

They wouldn't have a comeback. Sat, 26 May 2007 05:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (hhcv) Comments Can you say http://osnews.com/thread?243305 http://osnews.com/thread?243305 Cease And Desist?

I'm not against this idea, but I have a feeling MS will be. Sat, 26 May 2007 19:34:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (yakirz) Comments RE[3]: Dead end http://osnews.com/thread?243313 http://osnews.com/thread?243313 Been there done that , developed an unbloted 300 mb windows based on nt 5.1 kernel for home use. Sat, 26 May 2007 20:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WyldStylist) Comments RE: It's OS/2 All Over Again http://osnews.com/thread?243387 http://osnews.com/thread?243387 The difference is that OS/2 still is used in million of installations around the world in the industry - while Longhorn never was released due to the threat of MacOS X and GNU/Linux.

Your smearing of OS/2 and OS/2 users is nothing but nominated as the saddest attempt to ressurrect a dead and otherwise forgotten blog. Sun, 27 May 2007 04:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (flywheel) Comments If Microsoft is smart... http://osnews.com/thread?243864 http://osnews.com/thread?243864 they won't challenge this at all. They'll watch it carefully and allow the community to pour its ideas and efforts into producing a truly powerful Windows OS based on what the community wants. I've always said Windows should be free and that Microsoft should open-source it. Everyone knows that Windows server OS elements and the MS Office Suite are the real cash cows of Microsoft. Let the community develop the very best Windows ever! Microsoft's tired model of creating software slowly with a handful of paid developers cannot hope to compete with the open method of having armies of programmers working together. I'll be watching this closely. As a long time Linux user, perhaps if I do ever return to the Windows fold, it would only be to a community developed Windows OS. Tue, 29 May 2007 15:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (cmost) Comments Well, looks like the site is offline http://osnews.com/thread?243954 http://osnews.com/thread?243954 there ya go. Tue, 29 May 2007 23:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (BluenoseJake) Comments