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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

#111

Post by tracker1 »

beagle3 wrote: post #99
codedinosaur wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ....

I'd say upgrade to 10, not as nice as 7, but way better than 8/8.1 ... just disable the two bing search options (they're annoying).

Also used ClassicShell on Win8.. if you lauch a metro app it will go metro mode.. but that's the only case.

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

#112

Post by kybernetyk »

userbinator wrote: post #34
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…

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…

>but Windows' GUI is [...] superior to [...] OS X

Hmm ...

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

#113

Post by simonh »

iopq wrote: post #53
paulddraper wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm using a computer right now. I use a cellphone when I'm out, and use a tablet in bed/on the couch. I use a laptop when not home. I use my computer to stream games on TwitchTV. I also run a Linux VM on my personal computer to run caffe for neural net things. Let's see your tablet do that...

Computer + X = Computer

Computer + teletype = Computer

Computer + VDU = Computer

Computer + Mouse = Computer

Computer + Ethernet = Computer

Computer + Phone = Computer

Computer platforms devour the peripherals mated to them.

BTW The Limbo PC emulator on Android is capable of running a minimal Linux distro and there are MS DOS emulators for iOS. It's just a matter of time.

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

#114

Post by SXX »

tracker1 wrote: post #109
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…

Windows can run an executable with a GUI interface compiled for 32-bit Windows over 20 years ago... Though it's far from perfect, Windows has a better binary compatibility record than ANY other OS for far longer periods of time. There is something to be said for that. It's only recently (for 64-bit windows) that DOS support (ntvdm) has been unavailable.

    > Windows can run an executable with a GUI interface compiled for 32-bit Windows over 20 years ago...
Linux can also run really old code that is 16-17+ years old: Loki Software games ports from 1998-1999. Though there just no need for average user to run anything that old so it's usually not available out of box.

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

#115

Post by Joeboy »

ArkyBeagle wrote: post #96
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.

Is there a common scripting language that they both speak natively?

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

#116

Post by xcasex »

alok-g wrote: post #84
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…

Below are the issues I face with Linux: - Windows has better accessibility support. (Windows 10 has messed some of it up.) - When there are issues, it is easy to find help with Windows than for Linux. Unless it is about a BSOD which are rare now. - While there are many claims that Linux does not need a firewall, I do not agree. Setting up a firewall on Linux is a lot more challenging (newbie here) than on Windows. Fo…

I vehemetly disagree wrg. to firewalls and a11y.

Gnome-Shell (default on fedora et al.) has since the GNOME projects 2.x release had _stellar_ accessability support.

Firewall? you fail to mention what you'd block. there are ease of use projects shipping per default such as UFW. But since it's uncommon in the post-inetd era to have services running and exposed publicly, i fail to see the usecase.

bsods? uncommon? i have four baytrail tablets that spew forth a bluescreen once a day.

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

#117

Post by Nullabillity »

eloisant wrote: post #108
ikurei wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 on…

If you want to run Windows applications on an Open Source OS, the Wine approach is much more realistic. It's also nicer because for everything that Linux can already do, you don't have to mimic Windows. Anyway, desktop applications are not that relevant today, and most of those that are (like web browsers, developer tools) are cross-platform anyway.

IIRC, ReactOS is based on Wine anyway.

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

#118

Post by dingaling »

SwellJoe wrote: post #90
alok-g wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Below are the issues I face with Linux: - Windows has better accessibility support. (Windows 10 has messed some of it up.) - When there are issues, it is easy to find help with Windows than for Linux. Unless it is about a BSOD which are rare now. - While there are many claims that Linux does not need a firewall, I do not agree. Setting up a firewall on Linux is a lot more challenging (newbie here) than on Windows. Fo…

Accessibility is an excellent reason to choose Windows, probably sufficient even on its own, if you need an accessible system. Accessibility is hard, and requires a ton of resources to do well...Microsoft has been willing and able to expend those resources. I do know users who require assistive technologies to work who use Linux, but it's rare and they're extremely technically savvy themselves (usually software devel…

> The default firewall on a Fedora system is fine

It really isn't.

Try blocking one particular program from accessing the Internet. You'll end-up messing around with assigning programs to group ownership and then adding ip tables rules.

Linux-Android goes all the way and sandboxes programs which makes firewalling easier. But desktop Linux is far behind.

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

#119

Post by sspiff »

pjmlp wrote: post #101
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…

- Written for thread based applications, not processes - Asynchronous IO architecture only matched by Solaris - Object based architecture - OO ABI (more so with WinRT), besides the C one - Allows C++ in kernel space - Components as interoperability between applications - User space driver model, specially nice for graphics drivers - Pursues the mainframe ideas of safer languages for system and application's programmi…

> Powershell is closer to Xerox PARC REPLs than any UNIX shell, except for Mac OS X.

Which shell do you mean on OS X? I thought they just shipped with zsh or bash?

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

#120

Post by rasz_pl »

orionblastar wrote: post #39
rasz_pl wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft already kinda went open source, unintentionally :) http://www.opennt.net/ interesting thread documenting start of OpenNT project http://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=33250 from broken code base that would not compile to booting ~Windows 2003 compiled from source.

Avast gives me a Win32Evo Trojan warning when downloading NT 4.5 binary or ISO images. Is it a false positive or did they accidentally introduce a Trojan into the code? Anyway Avast won't let me download NT 4.5 due to a Trojan warning. So I can't test it out unless I disabled my AV. Edit: Why the downvote, scan it with Avast yourself if you don't believe me. I refuse to use it unless it is verified to not have a Troj…

oh, you might want to brush up on state of the art in security practices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Z7L498dNB0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzC8jJ0ESJ0

its trivial to bypass every single scanner on the market, at this point they are all snake oil

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