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

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

#91

Post by terinjokes »

coderjames wrote: post #21
e12e wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly. The Windows "OEM" or "System Builder" edition is only valid for computers that are sold on to the final end user. They aren't legal for personal use by the original purchaser. [1] [1] = http://www.howtogeek.com/197232/microsoft-is-misleading-cons...

Interesting. I bought Windows 8 System Builder and used the "Personal Use License". Some point thereafter I upgraded to Windows 8.1. I'm sure I agreed to the new terms of use (after all, I wanted to get back to my computer), and was suddenly breaking the license.

Wonderful.

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

#92

Post by fsloth »

SwellJoe wrote: post #31

I've always been strangely fascinated by this project. I don't understand it. I appreciate the technical skill involved, and the amount of effort expended. But, I can't imagine working on it. From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. It has a very strong application ecosystem, but technically it's unpleasant to work on (for me). So, given that, if there's somet…

"From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. It has a very strong application ecosystem, but technically it's unpleasant to work on"

I suppose this depends on the workflow. Powershell is just as powerfull for me as bash (I can't help to learn the syntax for either of them - I just google the expression for iterating a command over files and whatnot)

I start applications with a shortcut - on windows this is windows key + plus a few starting letters of the application name.

That's about all I need from the OS.

"if there's something I want an OS to do that Linux can't do, I would be motivated to work on making Linux able to do that thing so I could do that thing on an Open Source OS I enjoy using,"

This might be the main difference- for me the OS is just an underlying substrate to support my programs I want to run and develop. For third party apps - once I'm in the application the OS pretty much fades into the background unless there is a problem - and quite a lot of the code I write is pretty much platform agnostic.

The main point of the OS for me then is, how much of it works unobtrusively out of the box. And since windows comes in the box for off the shelf hardware it's the easiest for me.

I did do dual boots in the past but now I don't see the point anymore for desktop use. For some document batch runs I've not yet found equivalent for windows world for so for those I see the value for a virtual machine. My NAS box runs linux and it's pretty sweet.

So are there anything that actually locks me on windows? Visual studio is really, really nice for C++ development and that alone would be a sufficient reason for me to run windows. And then comes the sweet, sweet surface pro with its fantastic pen - basically, that combined with Manga Studio takes me to a place of digital art bliss (no, I'm not a paid advertisement - I've used digitizers for two decades and drawn all my life I know what I like - even if just for a hobby).

That said, I don't trust proprietary stuff for anything of value - i.e. data and programs which I would like to be able to run always - but the windows platform offers currently the best platform for the creative activities - coding and art - that I do at home.

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

#93

Post by krylon »

SwellJoe wrote: post #31

I've always been strangely fascinated by this project. I don't understand it. I appreciate the technical skill involved, and the amount of effort expended. But, I can't imagine working on it. From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. It has a very strong application ecosystem, but technically it's unpleasant to work on (for me). So, given that, if there's somet…

Personally, I strongly prefer Unixoid systems, too.

But in my day job, I am a Windows admin (and helpdesk monkey). If there was a system that is both free software and binary compatible with Windows, that would be pretty nice, if only to give Microsoft some competition.

And on the corporate desktop, Windows totally and utterly dominates. Replacing it is next to impossible, because most of the applications (at least in our case) are not available for other systems. So a free software-alternative that maintains compatibility would be really nice.

(Of course, ReactOS is aiming for XP-compatibility, so even if they reach 100% compatibility, they still have a long way to go...)

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

#94

Post by venomsnake »

13of40 wrote: post #28
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…

Even if it was $200, you get about as much mileage out of a single-machine license for Windows as you would out of, say, a hard drive or a video card, and you don't see anyone complaining about having to pay for those. I think people even understand that most of the price for those items goes toward paying employees and keeping the lights on, not physically building the device. What gives, people? What gives?

Well. I OWN the video card. Until the licence purchaser have more rights over what to do with the software and resell it, it is not worth the money.

Also my video card don't have 6 screens of privacy settings that I need to turn off at first boot.

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

#95

Post by dlitz »

sho_hn wrote: post #35
userbinator wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO the nixes have a far superior CLI, but Windows' GUI is (at least pre-Metro, i.e. Win32 desktop) superior to the many disjoint alternatives that the Linux/BSD/OS X/Solaris/etc. world has. Instead of Qt, Gtk, and all the others, Windows just has Win32 and all apps have basically identical look-and-feel (except for those that go out of their way to reinvent the standard GUI elements, but in my experience this is mu…

> Instead of Qt, Gtk, and all the others, Windows just has Win32 No, Windows has Qt, Gtk and all the others, too. Virtually any regular user Windows install has 2-5 Qt apps on it. And Windows has been infamous for apps reinventing standard UI elements with skinned monstrosities.

> And Windows has been infamous for apps reinventing standard UI elements with skinned monstrosities.

This becomes painfully obvious when you start working with any kind of GUI automation tools (e.g. AutoIt). I imagine users of screenreaders have similar issues.

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

#96

Post by ArkyBeagle »

SwellJoe wrote: post #31

I've always been strangely fascinated by this project. I don't understand it. I appreciate the technical skill involved, and the amount of effort expended. But, I can't imagine working on it. From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. It has a very strong application ecosystem, but technically it's unpleasant to work on (for me). So, given that, if there's somet…

I barely notice the difference between Linux and Windows these days. A lot of that has to do with having a common scripting language between the two.

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

#97

Post by Qerub »

cozzyd wrote: post #79
donatj wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been about 5 years since I was a regular Windows user, but I can't think of a single Qt app I used on a regular basis. Care to name some examples?

Skype might be the most popular.

Last time I checked Skype only used Qt on Linux.

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

#98

Post by ikurei »

SwellJoe wrote: post #31

I've always been strangely fascinated by this project. I don't understand it. I appreciate the technical skill involved, and the amount of effort expended. But, I can't imagine working on it. From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. It has a very strong application ecosystem, but technically it's unpleasant to work on (for me). So, given that, if there's somet…

> if there's something I want an OS to do that Linux can't do, I would be motivated to work on making Linux able to do that thing so I could do that thing on an Open Source OS I enjoy using, rather than work on replicating Windows so I could do that thing on an open source OS I don't enjoy using.

That's a great ethos, but it's not that Windows can do something Linux can't. If you want to play a game/use a CAD made only for windows, are you going to pour years into cloning it? Yeah, Linux has, at least, competent applications for almost every need, but sometimes what you want just isn't available.

ReactOS is shooting for the moon, but if it took off and got to an almost 100% windows-compatible state, I'd be glad to have an Open Source Windows.

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

#99

Post by beagle3 »

codedinosaur wrote: post #76
beagle3 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give your opinion on Win8/8.1/Metro/Modern ? How would you rate its effect on your proficiency?

My situation is almost identical to recursive. I upgraded to Windows 8, right when it came out. Hated the jarring dual interface. But the only thing I had to do was install Classic Shell[0]. And I was back to the familiar Windows. Practically nothing else changed from the UI perspective. The same with Windows 10 as well. I'm addicted to the Win32 based Start menu and the ability to right click files and folders from…

Thanks. Does it totally kill metro? Everytime I work on a Win8 computer, I manage to do something that brings metro up (e.g, press the network icon in the notification area on the right, or press the "Windows" key on the keyboard), and start cursing ....

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

#100

Post by aangjie »

skissane wrote: post #82
SwellJoe wrote: post #31

I've always been strangely fascinated by this project. I don't understand it. I appreciate the technical skill involved, and the amount of effort expended. But, I can't imagine working on it. From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. It has a very strong application ecosystem, but technically it's unpleasant to work on (for me). So, given that, if there's somet…

> From my perspective, Windows is an inferior system to any UNIX-based system on almost every front. The core architecture of Windows NT is actually pretty nice. Its chief architect, Dave Cutler, was one of the lead developers of VMS. I think Windows NT and VMS do IO much better than Unix/Linux - making the basic primitives asynchronous, and layering synchronous IO on top, instead of asynchronous IO being a fragile a…

That's an interesting point you make. I've not digged into NT, but is there some fork of linux that provides the same. I can think of GNU Mach, being a case of taking that to the extreme end (i.e: micro services making together a kernel).
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