Computing desk
< August 29	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 31 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

August 30

Could or does Microsoft incorporate open source libraries into its products?

If something works better in the open source version, for example ext3 works better than ntfs, is it possible that MS incorporates it into its products?--Yppieyei (talk) 03:19, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft does use many open-source libraries in its software, such as zlib. I'm not sure whether Microsoft could incorporate GPL-licensed code into Windows without open-sourcing all of Windows. Perhaps they could, if the code was in a driver (NTFS is a driver) and they open-sourced the whole driver. Microsoft has sold at least one product that contained GPLed software (Windows Services for UNIX). -- BenRG (talk) 05:42, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The legal part of it. Depending on the license, changes in the software source code as a contribution made by the user needs to be published, avail on the internet as they got the software under this license. This software must not be sold, but it is allowed to bunde it and sell their proprietary product under its license. So the money is for the closed and proprietary source, not for the free and open source software. Using the free software, the source must be contributed to the community. Another example an automotive navigation system, using a linux kernel running its proprietary software was sold. The changes inside the kernel needs to be contributed to the community. As the manufacturer "had stolen" the open software, a court order make them publish their changes in the kernel. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 09:35, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Hans Haase:: not quite on topic. That does not answer whether there are or not open source libraries or ideas into Microsoft's programs. --3dcaddy (talk) 10:08, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"Could or does…" was the question. This is the answer on "could" by showing what is behind that. "Does" is the other question. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 10:13, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Computer scientists who eschew the use of computers for their work

Are there many of them, like Edsger W. Dijkstra, who prefer to work with more primitive means, and maybe don't even know how to program? Can the newish generations of computer scientists still be like that? I assume that new generations of comp. scientists grew up in an environment where computers were everywhere, contrary to Dijkstra. That would make it almost impossible not to see the computer as a basic tool.--3dcaddy (talk) 10:38, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I expect that most computer scientists go into the profession because they enjoy technology, especially computers. There are some who go into it because they are simply good at it. Mary Allen Wilkes is one. She wanted to be a lawyer, but ended up a programmer (until she quit and became a lawyer). I've never seen anything from her about a dislike of computers. For that, there are examples. Google for "luddite programmer" and you'll find people who work as a programmer because they are good at it. However, they do not like technology and would prefer to never deal with technology. Scanning a few pages, some were forced into computer science (military or parents) and found that it pays the bills, but simply never had a taste for computers or technology. Others were eager to learn about programming at a young age, but became jaded over time and ended up with a dislike for technology. 75.139.70.50 (talk) 17:55, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Computer Scientists are not necessarily programmers. Some more theoretical branches of Computer Science like algorithm complexity can even today quite easily be done without any computer help. 86.189.248.185 (talk) 22:24, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It appears that you are claiming that Dijkstra preferred theory (math) to programming. That is not remotely true. He was an avid programmer in the 50's, developed programming languages (more then one) in the 60's, and developed programs and algorithms for distributed systems (before others thought about the Internet) in the 70's. He rallied for the acceptance of computer science as an independent field in the 60's and against the requirement that all programs require a mathematical proof in the 70's. By the 80's, he was pushing computer science to treat programming as the core of the science, not the hardware. Previously, the hardware was a major limiting factor and much time was spent coming up with tricks to get a program to function within tight constraints. By the 80's, programmers had 64K of RAM and processors were so fast that the computer had no problem keeping up with human input. All in all, Dijkstra was a fan of programming, not in any way a Luddite. 209.149.113.150 (talk) 13:35, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I was one of the lucky few who got onto Dijkstra's mailing list (paper, snail-mail) in the late 1970's and early 80's. Every few days to a week, a new gem would arrive in the mail - almost always hand-written in by far the neatest handwriting you've ever seen. He generally wrote programs in a programming language of his own design, which (AFAIK) was never implemented as an actual language (and had characters that you don't find on any keyboard!). Most of his works were essentially mathematical and theoretical in nature - it didn't seem to matter that they'd need a ton of work to reduce to practical code. His thoughts were all over the map - and I devoured them as they arrived in my in-box. I especially liked the little personal touches: "I'm writing this paper with my left hand because it could use some practice". SteveBaker (talk) 07:00, 1 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Defaulting

Whenever I click on a link, since upgrading to Win10, in Thunderbird, it defaults to Microsoft Edge. How do I stop it from doing that? I want it to default to Firefox. $KägeTorä - (影虎) (もしもし！)$ 12:14, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Bring up the start menu and search for "Choose Default Apps", this will bring up the settings screen to set the default apps for various things, including the web browser. 81.138.15.171 (talk) 15:22, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions for free antivirus scanners for windows 7 or 8

Hi. Can anyone recommend a good free antivirus scanner for Windows 7 or 8. Note in particular that I'm not looking for a full-fledged antivirus software, which monitors your activity in the background, etc. All I'm looking for is a scanner that I can invoke to check a particular file, or a group of files (or a volume). In fact it does not have to have a GUI (a command-line scanner would be perfectly fine).

Any suggestions? -- Oddwood (talk) 17:28, 30 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article Comparison of antivirus software that provides lots of suggestions. Look at the Windows table and the "price" column and make your selection. I could make recommendations (I use AVG, Malwarebytes and Spybot), but they might not be the best, or the ones that suit you. Dbfirs 06:47, 31 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]