Never gonna happen.

Bet M$ doesn't want to do anything with Win7. Remove trial period at best. As for making Win7 an open source software, this should never happen. God or Satan only knows how many security wholes and vulnerabilities are there, people who currently using Win7 will be exposed, not to mentioned about same core features that being used now in Win10. If people want to play with software, they better invest their time at making Linux distro to replacement to Win7.

Frankly, this is stupid.

Windows for free? No.

If so, hackers would only need the petition list to know which systems don't get security updates anymore 😀

I'll say it. As a Linux user, I am accostumed to deal with shortcomings and prevailing is the key. Community gives you support and you give back. Now, this movement has some rather desilusional points. First, opening the code it's opening the Pandora's box. Even in Linux community, not everyone is a saint and too notch citizen and ethical person The code has to include legacy code from Xp and sure enough, some parts still are running under Windows 10. What are you asking for? Second, the OS was and still is under a propertietary license. Now, under the impression of Microsoft loves Linux, FSF wants Microsoft to have the hand where the mouth is. Didn't you learn something through the years, FSF? MICROSOFT DOESN'T LOVE LINUX.JUST MONEY. Third Why people cling to that OS, just because everyone build their software on top of that OS and now they feel the carpet pulled from under their feet? No future proof, no foreseeable plan, no nothing? Enterprise should realise that more money should be put in IT and development. Roll with it or die under the weight of IT. Fourth There is salvation out there and some virtualization technology and Snaps Kubernetes Flatpak FU can make some things easier. IOMMU can help immensely and Wine 5.0 was just released. Are you sure you want to run that Win 7 never patched and every script kiddie could mess with your box, just for fun? Imagine the horror of a hospital full of sick people relying on W7 machines waiting for a disaster to strike. Once again, there is so much to discuss and will eventually turn to politics. This is where I stop. We can fix computers, we can do better. But we can't fix people and shortcomings of NOT seeing the real enemy.

Well. I wonder if it can be categorized as abandon-ware. But people should move on from Windows 7. And put efforts into forcing MS to remove bloat from Windows 10, which is much better.

As I lately learned the very hard way: Failing to plan, you are planning to fail The IT Department Philosophy Mantra

Just yesterday went to medical checkup and my GP was running XP... needless to say, my heart rate bumped as a lovestruck teenager. GP - What's wrong with you , sir? Me : Your OS makes me sick? GP: - Oh, this. Nah, we'll getting W7 in a few days... Me:- Faints....

Here you have it. Just be warned , some things are very logical and realistic, some simply don't. [youtube=8N9b0cw0Vd8] [youtube=pI_EkqlXQVk] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/24/windows_7_open_source/

medical institutions use the OS that fits the requirements of their diagnostic applications, its absolutely normal for them to still be running XP and Vista in Xen and Citrix VM's behind a subnet with no net access.

Most of the code of Windows 7 is still in Windows 10, Microsoft would never do this.

...as well as its ten years of poisoning education, invading privacy, and threatening user security...

Yeah, i'm sure asking that nicely will help... nutcases.

TheDeeGee:

Microsoft would never do this.

Anytime microsoft patches a bug they run the risk of breaking such software, 🙄 Theres also the fact some of these devices are running XP embedded on early generation nand storage. And finally the fact that even though there is a desire to migrate to secure operating systems, Government and private sector alike are tight arses and won't fund the development of migration tools to newer existing software (hell they won't even fund the purchase of the newer software)

It will never be free. Microsoft owns the code lines written for this OS. It was never an open source software to begin with so you ask to get it free when a corporation made money with it and paid supporting or developing employees.

Fox2232:

Well. I wonder if it can be categorized as abandon-ware. But people should move on from Windows 7. And put efforts into forcing MS to remove bloat from Windows 10, which is much better.

If people move on from W7 to W10 how can they make an effort to force MS to change the later when this is what they want, to force users to move to an OS they fully control... The only way to force MS to do anything is to jump to Linux but very few are going to do that.

About medical institutions i understand the use of older os, i mean you do not just change your mri machine ....on the other hand such computers should not be hooked to the internet ... period!

The only things I would petition NTFS source for better driver support in all OSs.

"We demand that Windows 7 be released as free software", great way to start a petition, what they trying to do.....scare them in to submission.

Come on, this is clearly a political move. The FSF wants to point out (again) to the community (not the general public who will never even hear of this) that MS doesn't give a shit about openness and that it's interest in the linux kernel and open sourcing part of the .net vm is entirely for their own benefit. The open source community is not a monolithic structure but u need to maintain certain reputation if u want to "ask" something from it. The FSF is just attacking that reputation

"We demand" ... wtf... why would anyone even think that they can demand anything. It ain't yours. And by simply saying "demand" which is aggressive, any higher up that this is aimed at will disregard it immediately. "We implore you to consider", the community would appreciate... something like that. On one hand they are blasting 7, and then they demand an open source version that will be a nightmare for microsoft to create. From a legal and technical point of view.