ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate • Hacker News Board

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#11

Post by blisterpeanuts » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:12 AM UTC

An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thing and not have to fuss so much about compatibility? Almost every recent Mac can bootcamp Windows now, and Linux can also dual-boot, or else maybe install it to VirtualBox.

That's also why I've stopped updating my Crossover for $40 every year or two. Basic laptops and desktop boxes are so cheap these days that it becomes a question of whether your time is worth fussing around with compatibility software.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#12

Post by return0 » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:22 AM UTC

radlad wrote: post #6

giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

This is one OS I've kept my eye on forever, though it feels as though Microsoft will go open source before ReactOS can catch up if anything. I wouldn't mind if certain parts of Windows were open sourced, or replaced by open sourced alternatives at least, not all of Windows. We saw this happen to the Open Live Writer.

It seems to me like Microsoft is trying to position themselves more as a Google-type entity. In the past, they were a massive proprietary corporation focused on Windows. Nobody cares about computers anymore (thanks smartphones, tablets!), and so Windows will go down the drain eventually. Not to mention Linux and OSX market share increasing. Not today, not tomorrow, but the writing's on the wall. Open source to get de…

> Nobody cares about computers anymore (thanks smartphones, tablets!), and so Windows will go down the drain eventually

Not holding my breath for that.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#13

Post by viraptor » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:25 AM UTC

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #11

An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thing and not have to fuss so much about compatibility? Almost every recent Mac can bootcamp Windows now, and Linux can also dual-boot, or else maybe install it to VirtualBox. That's also why I've stopped updating my Crossover for $40 every year or two. Basic lapt…

Just a personal thing, but I'd pay extra to run the one or two windows applications on linux rather install windows. Just because of system maintenance, security, licensing, privacy, etc. reasons.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#14

Post by e12e » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:36 AM UTC

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #11

An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thing and not have to fuss so much about compatibility? Almost every recent Mac can bootcamp Windows now, and Linux can also dual-boot, or else maybe install it to VirtualBox. That's also why I've stopped updating my Crossover for $40 every year or two. Basic lapt…

I'm not sure it's entirely clear what you can use an OEM Windows disk for. Isn't that just for new hardware? And that's at least 50/vm if I understand things. The thing to compare reactOS to is probably a datacenter licensed copy of Windows server. Productivity applications will (mostly) run in Wine - I don't think anyone expects ReactOS to be a viable alternative to bare-metal Windows install for gaming.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#15

Post by eecks » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:46 AM UTC

radlad wrote: post #6

giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

This is one OS I've kept my eye on forever, though it feels as though Microsoft will go open source before ReactOS can catch up if anything. I wouldn't mind if certain parts of Windows were open sourced, or replaced by open sourced alternatives at least, not all of Windows. We saw this happen to the Open Live Writer.

It seems to me like Microsoft is trying to position themselves more as a Google-type entity. In the past, they were a massive proprietary corporation focused on Windows. Nobody cares about computers anymore (thanks smartphones, tablets!), and so Windows will go down the drain eventually. Not to mention Linux and OSX market share increasing. Not today, not tomorrow, but the writing's on the wall. Open source to get de…

> Nobody cares about computers anymore

You're not in touch with reality at all

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#16

Post by secfirstmd » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:47 AM UTC

As someone working on digital and physical security for human rights defenders in the field, I've followed this project closely. I would love to have a version of TAILS which had the Windows friendly attributes of ReactOS. Unfortunately, far too often the people most at risk just cannot really make the leap to a Linux based system, so a free, locked down version of something like ReactOS mixed with many of TAILS features, would be awesome. I know TAILS have tried to mirror some of the visual features but realistically it will never be the same.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#17

Post by gnrme » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 12:52 AM UTC

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #11

An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thing and not have to fuss so much about compatibility? Almost every recent Mac can bootcamp Windows now, and Linux can also dual-boot, or else maybe install it to VirtualBox. That's also why I've stopped updating my Crossover for $40 every year or two. Basic lapt…

Microsoft is dragging its users into the cloud. Something like ReactOS would let people live within the Microsoft environment without the baggage of the cloud. A personal computer rather than a glorified cloud terminal.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#18

Post by carbocation » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 1:03 AM UTC

eecks wrote: post #15

radlad wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me like Microsoft is trying to position themselves more as a Google-type entity. In the past, they were a massive proprietary corporation focused on Windows. Nobody cares about computers anymore (thanks smartphones, tablets!), and so Windows will go down the drain eventually. Not to mention Linux and OSX market share increasing. Not today, not tomorrow, but the writing's on the wall. Open source to get de…

> Nobody cares about computers anymore You're not in touch with reality at all

I think the comment to which you were responding was both thoughtful and, yes, provocative. You took the bait, but you didn't add anything of substance. Do you think that attributing some of the shift in how computing is done to tablets/smartphones is "not in touch with reality"? Because if you can show some data or link to other arguments, that would be really interesting. If not, why post?

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#19

Post by paulddraper » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 1:06 AM UTC

return0 wrote: post #12

radlad wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me like Microsoft is trying to position themselves more as a Google-type entity. In the past, they were a massive proprietary corporation focused on Windows. Nobody cares about computers anymore (thanks smartphones, tablets!), and so Windows will go down the drain eventually. Not to mention Linux and OSX market share increasing. Not today, not tomorrow, but the writing's on the wall. Open source to get de…

> Nobody cares about computers anymore (thanks smartphones, tablets!), and so Windows will go down the drain eventually Not holding my breath for that.

Wait....are you telling me that used a computer today? And the day before that? And the day before...

Ah, you're probably behind the times and not very techy anyway.

Re: ReactOS, a 17-year quest for an open-source Windows, has a new release candidate

#20

Post by carbocation » Thu, Dec 17, 2015, 1:06 AM UTC

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #11

An OEM Windows 7 disc is under $50 at Amazon now (down from $80 which is what I paid a couple of months ago). At a certain point, why not just buy the real thing and not have to fuss so much about compatibility? Almost every recent Mac can bootcamp Windows now, and Linux can also dual-boot, or else maybe install it to VirtualBox. That's also why I've stopped updating my Crossover for $40 every year or two. Basic lapt…

The reason I like R rather than Stata (actually, there are many, but the initial reason) is that I can run R on as many computers as I have access to simultaneously without worrying about license compliance.

When I submit 1,000 jobs to a compute cluster to process genotyping, I don't worry that I'm violating a license.

When I sold my business that used R as a core tool, I didn't worry that I had enough licenses.

I think that is a valuable reason to actively prefer free as in beer and free as in liberty over even inexpensive but proprietary.