As we told you at the end of last week, a massive leak has made the source code of Windows XP , and other versions of the operating system, circulate on the net. Any user can download the torrent with more than 40 GB of Microsoft code and open it on their own computer to gradually discover the secrets of what was one of the operating systems most loved by users. And, unsurprisingly, the secrets have quickly come to light. Starting with an issue that could have turned XP into a much more Apple-like system.
One of the novelties that Windows XP brought was the ability to customize the appearance of the operating system through themes. The original Windows theme used blue and green tones, matching the classic desktop background, which over the years became the most characteristic of this OS. The operating system also included other themes by default (Olive green and Silver), and on the net we could find many others to adapt Windows to our liking.
However, analysis of the Windows XP source code has revealed that the OS included a secret theme, which never saw the light of day, that could have turned XP into a true Mac OS X. That’s Candy .
Candy, the theme that turned Windows XP into an “Apple Edition”
In the middle of the war between Microsoft and Apple, the Windows company developed a theme, called “Candy”, which almost perfectly imitated the “Aqua” theme characteristic of Mac OS X.
Although there are many details to be debugged on this topic, there are many elements that are clearly designed to mimic the appearance of the Apple operating system. Without going any further, the Start button of this Windows XP topic.
Finally, the Candy theme was never made available to users . It is not known if the reason is that it was only a theme developed for internal use, a simple experiment, or that Candy became the template on which the Windows XP theme engine was developed and on which the main themes were created. included by default.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, the war between Apple and Microsoft was very hot, mainly due to accusations between them of copying content. The launch of this issue would have been a bomb that, undoubtedly, would have led to a new war between the companies. Finally, despite their similarities, Mac OS X and Windows XP went different paths. And, today, they are two completely different operating systems.
Microsoft investigates source code leak
Windows XP has been abandoned since 2014. The operating system no longer receives any type of support, and users who still use it are increasingly faced with more impediments. However, leaking the source code can lead to significant problems, as it will allow hackers to learn more about the inner workings of this operating system. And we remember that Windows 10 continues to use many of the components of this old operating system .
What is clear is that, now that the source code has been released, many other secrets about the operating system are going to come to light. The next few weeks, and the next few months, look very interesting. We look forward to learning about new secrets about the operating system that undoubtedly marked a before and after for Microsoft.
Source> theverge
