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    Posted on 19-03-19, 23:23
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #100 of 717
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    Regarding Windows 10, I heard of this and would like to hear what someone who's more qualified thinks about it:
    Posted by https://ameliorated.info/
    Windows 10 AME (Ameliorated) - What Is This Project?

    Windows 10 AME aims at delivering a stable, non-intrusive yet fully functional build of Windows 10 to anyone, who requires the Windows operating system natively. Spyware systems, which are abundant in Windows 10 by default, have not been disabled using group policy, registry entries or various other workarounds – they have been entirely removed and deleted from the system, on an executable-level. This includes Windows Update, and any related services intended to re-patch the system via what is essentially a universal backdoor. Core applications, such as the included Edge web-browser, Windows Media Player, Cortana, as well as any appx applications, have also been successfully eliminated. The total size of removed files is about 2 GB.

    Great effort has been invested in maintaining the subsequent system’s stability, bug-free operation and user experience, as many of these removed services conflict with core Windows 10 features.

    It sounds too good to be true, and I have no idea how they're able to legally distribute it, but the core concept seems reasonable.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-20, 06:26 (revision 1)

    Post: #97 of 456
    Since: 10-29-18

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    - I wouldn't expect MS to tolerate it
    - How did they determine the files responsible for the spyware? 2GB sounds like a lifelong project.
    - How can we be sure there is no non-MS spyware?
    - There seems to be nothing else on the web about it.

    My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10
    Posted on 19-03-20, 07:18
    Custom title here

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    Posted by sureanem

    It sounds too good to be true, and I have no idea how they're able to legally distribute it, but the core concept seems reasonable.
    What makes you think it is remotely legal?


    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 19-03-20, 09:15
    Dinosaur

    Post: #215 of 1318
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    Sounds a lot like 98Lite/XPLite, with the difference that it was a commercial product you could buy, and you had to provide your own Windows setup media to be patched. On the other side this is a straight copyright violation, even if you are required to have a legit Windows license key.

    I've never been a fan of custom/modded Windows versions anyway (beyond slipstreaming patches, and in the XP era, SATA/AHCI drivers)

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 19-03-20, 10:38

    Post: #101 of 210
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    There's been so many stripped down versions of 98 and XP....I think the "lightest" one I saw was XP Gamer's Edition.
    Posted on 19-03-20, 11:06
    Custom title here

    Post: #342 of 1164
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    Lightest I saw was MS-DOS 7. Someone pulled out everything but the MS-DOS part of 9x and put it up as a standalone install.

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 19-03-20, 16:30
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #102 of 717
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    Posted by creaothceann
    - I wouldn't expect MS to tolerate it
    - How did they determine the files responsible for the spyware? 2GB sounds like a lifelong project.
    - How can we be sure there is no non-MS spyware?
    - There seems to be nothing else on the web about it.
    If it's as blatantly illegal as it looks, someone should have sent takedown notices by now. They've been active since late 2017, and they aren't hiding behind cloudflare.
    They do have instructions you can follow to obtain the supposedly same results, and the website looks professional, so they aren't complete clowns. I can find some threads about it but nothing substantial. It used to be called "Windows 10 AME," try searching for that instead.
    Posted by Kakashi
    There's been so many stripped down versions of 98 and XP....I think the "lightest" one I saw was XP Gamer's Edition.
    XP Mini (ships with HBCD, another great product that I have no idea how it doesn't get DMCA'd) clocks in at 37MB.

    Man, they don't make software like they used to.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-21, 01:10

    Post: #104 of 210
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    Posted by CaptainJistuce
    Lightest I saw was MS-DOS 7. Someone pulled out everything but the MS-DOS part of 9x and put it up as a standalone install.

    Any reason for this? Anything that requires 7?
    Posted on 19-03-21, 03:22
    Custom title here

    Post: #344 of 1164
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    Posted by Kakashi
    Posted by CaptainJistuce
    Lightest I saw was MS-DOS 7. Someone pulled out everything but the MS-DOS part of 9x and put it up as a standalone install.

    Any reason for this? Anything that requires 7?
    I think just for a DOS with FAT32.

    Most DOS apps don't care about the specific OS. They take over the hardware directly for most tasks.

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 19-03-22, 07:28
    Post: #156 of 426
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    No love for MS-DOS 8?

    AMD Ryzen 3700X | MSI Gamer Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | 16GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM | ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard | Windows 10 x64
    Posted on 19-03-22, 07:51
    Full mod

    Post: #173 of 443
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    There was an MS-DOS 8?

    The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
    Posted on 19-03-22, 09:43
    Custom title here

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    Posted by Screwtape
    There was an MS-DOS 8?

    Apparently it was what Windows ME ran on. But it was kneecapped because it came with Windows ME.

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    Posted on 19-03-22, 09:58
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #108 of 717
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    Huh, apparently MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 are open-source. Pretty neat:
    https://github.com/Microsoft/MS-DOS

    It does however beg the question of why they didn't open-source later versions. Are they worried about revealing bleeding-edge technologies such as extended and logical partitions, directory tree copying with XCOPY, support of hard disk partitions greater than 32 MiB, support of up to four MS-DOS primary partitions, and memory remapping with HIMEM.SYS?

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-22, 10:55
    Post: #157 of 426
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    Posted by Screwtape
    There was an MS-DOS 8?

    Yep, Windows ME included it (v7.11 was the previous release of MS-DOS afaik).

    AMD Ryzen 3700X | MSI Gamer Geforce 1070Ti 8GB | 16GB 3600MHz DDR4 RAM | ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero (WiFi) Motherboard | Windows 10 x64
    Posted on 19-03-22, 11:31
    Custom title here

    Post: #347 of 1164
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    Posted by sureanem
    Huh, apparently MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0 are open-source. Pretty neat:
    https://github.com/Microsoft/MS-DOS

    It does however beg the question of why they didn't open-source later versions. Are they worried about revealing bleeding-edge technologies such as extended and logical partitions, directory tree copying with XCOPY, support of hard disk partitions greater than 32 MiB, support of up to four MS-DOS primary partitions, and memory remapping with HIMEM.SYS?
    They're saving something back in case this isn't enough to completely destroy Linux.


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    Posted on 19-03-22, 14:45
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #109 of 717
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    Posted by creaothceann
    - I wouldn't expect MS to tolerate it
    - How did they determine the files responsible for the spyware? 2GB sounds like a lifelong project.
    - How can we be sure there is no non-MS spyware?
    - There seems to be nothing else on the web about it.

    I asked them.
    We monitor the installation in Wireshark for lengthy periods and make iterations based on that.

    We also undertake anything else we can think of to remove telemetry.

    They don't have any legal issues at the moment and are in the process of switching over to torrents for distribution. They were anonymous, so it doesn't appear to be that big of a problem. It's a commendable move, the veneration of paperwork has been holding technology back for far too long.

    It is what it is. At any rate, it seems to be the best edition of Windows 10 available, since they had to rip out some other stuff too, which makes it less bloated. For instance, Edge gets swapped for Firefox and start menu to one that looks like the regular one.

    It should be noted that these aren't matters of personal taste but rather necessity, and that a version without any additional software is provided.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-22, 15:21 (revision 1)
    Dinosaur

    Post: #217 of 1318
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    Microsoft has gone nuclear in the past with people distributing UNMODIFIED MS software setup media, no matter the channel (despite the fact you actually need a valid license to run most of their products: there is no difference if your Windows ISO came straight from MS store or torrented from TPB; both can be activated with a legit retail license, using a leaked MAK serial from some Soviet blog with enough activations left, or cracked with an activator/loader). I do remember about a well known (and now closed since long ago) anime filesharing board in Latin America that got in hot water with MS just because some people were sharing Office on a couple threads (they emerged nearly unscratched, although they had to purge all MS software download threads from the board).

    There is no warranty this specific project will continue flying under the radar now that it's well known, no matter how laudable are their goals. Making a shitty product less shitty doesn't give you a "get out of jail free" card - as much as I despise current Microsoft, those guys have everything to lose should MS unleash the hounds. What they could do to minimize their risk is to release a toolbox which you can use yourself on your (legally sourced) Windows setup media, leading to a custom built ISO/whatever. Something like you can achieve with products like XPLite or BartPE. You would still be on shaky legal grounds but at least there would be no need to distribute copyrighted ISOs, much less modified ones. If you choose to distribute said modified ISO, they can't blame whoever made the toolbox (similar to emulators, where there is a big difference between distributing Higan binaries and a full "SNES GAMES FOR PC" package with a entire copy of the No-Intro SNES ROM set bundled with a copy of Higan)

    Anyway, the best edition of Windows 10 is called Windows 7.

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 19-03-22, 15:22

    Post: #60 of 175
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    Posted by sureanem

    It should be noted that these aren't matters of personal taste but rather necessity, and that a version without any additional software is provided.

    start menu to one that looks like the regular one.

    Check out my new patch for Final Fantasy III. It removes all the bugs, but remains totally neutral about everything else. Oh, and Sabin's hair is now black and his default name is Coolzo.
    Posted on 19-03-22, 15:32
    Stirrer of Shit
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    Posted by tomman
    Microsoft has gone nuclear in the past with people distributing UNMODIFIED MS software setup media, no matter the channel.

    There is no warranty this specific project will continue flying under the radar now that it's well known, no matter how laudable are their goals. Making a shitty product less shitty doesn't give you a "get out of jail free" card - as much as I despise current Microsoft, those guys have everything to lose should MS unleash the hounds.

    Anyway, the best edition of Windows 10 is called Windows 7.

    I don't see what Microsoft can do to them that they can't already try and do to whoever uploads the ISO files to TPB. They seemed to be observing security best practices, and from a practical perspective it's probably a cheap way to get PR (giving more developers, giving more redundancy).

    Library Genesis has been online for 10+ years, but because they have a modicum of common sense (e.g. not writing your name out with big letters on the front page) they don't have any legal trouble.

    Windows 7 is what I'd use, but support is dropping and it won't be a viable long-term solution. It's possible that Wine gets good enough before 2023, but I wouldn't bet on it.
    Posted by BearOso

    Check out my new patch for Final Fantasy III. It removes all the bugs, but remains totally neutral about everything else. Oh, and Sabin's hair is now black and his default name is Coolzo.

    The default one gets quite broken when you remove everything from it. Sure, what you replace it with is kind of arbitrary, but it's not as if they've gone out of their way to make deliberately offensive choices.

    Also, there is a version without these modifications available.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-22, 21:47
    Custom title here

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    Posted by sureanem
    For instance, Edge gets swapped for Firefox
    UUUGH.

    I'm on record here and now as saying Edge is better than Firefox.

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