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ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

reactos.org

21–30 of 318 posts

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#21
post #18

Seen ReactOS pop up a few times and always thought it was something to do with the Facebook Javascript library. This is really amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Blame Facebook for poor name choice. ReactOS is much older than React, the JS library.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#22
post #18

Seen ReactOS pop up a few times and always thought it was something to do with the Facebook Javascript library. This is really amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Yeah, I've been confused too. The website itself doesn't help: no "About" or "What is ReactOS?" in the main nav. I ended up looking it up on Wikipedia to find out what it is: an open source OS that is intended to be binary compatible with Windows.

This does actually ring a bell for me - I seem to remember mention of it very early in the century. That perhaps cuts to the heart of the issue: it's been going as a project since 1996, yet it's still only considered alpha. In other words, I'm not so sure it's going anywhere fast, and I'm not sure what you'd really use it for.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#23
post #19

What I like about this project, besides the dedication and professionalism of the team behind it, is that it offers PC gamers a possible way to play Windows-era games moving forward. In a decade or two, we likely won't be able to activate a Windows XP machine (and wouldn't want to with all of the security hazards either) so it's great to have a free and open source project to run our Windows stuff.

Don't all new Windows releases ship with backwards compatibility modes?

I wouldn’t count on Microsoft supporting XP era software 10 or 20 years from now, and I wouldn’t ask them to.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#24
post #19

What I like about this project, besides the dedication and professionalism of the team behind it, is that it offers PC gamers a possible way to play Windows-era games moving forward. In a decade or two, we likely won't be able to activate a Windows XP machine (and wouldn't want to with all of the security hazards either) so it's great to have a free and open source project to run our Windows stuff.

Don't all new Windows releases ship with backwards compatibility modes?

They do until Microsoft decides they don't. Unfortunately I don't know of any guarantees that MS has made about forever supporting XP comparability.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#25
post #2

One of the most interesting changelog that I have read in a While. Well written, thoughtful and gave me good insight into the project.

I wish the Gnome release notes were more detailed, like this one.

I wish all release notes were as detailed as these... Now a days you're lucky if you get anything aside from "Bug fixes and minor enhancements" with some releases... What changed??? It's useless to have a changelog if it doesn't document anything substantial.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#26
post #18

Seen ReactOS pop up a few times and always thought it was something to do with the Facebook Javascript library. This is really amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Yeah, I've been confused too. The website itself doesn't help: no "About" or "What is ReactOS?" in the main nav. I ended up looking it up on Wikipedia to find out what it is: an open source OS that is intended to be binary compatible with Windows. This does actually ring a bell for me - I seem to remember mention of it very early in the century. That perhaps cuts to the heart of the issue: it's been going as a projec…

I was surprised to find it has been going since 96. There is some good info on this site: https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/83578.html

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#27
post #21
post #18

Seen ReactOS pop up a few times and always thought it was something to do with the Facebook Javascript library. This is really amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Blame Facebook for poor name choice. ReactOS is much older than React, the JS library.

I realise that now but did have to do some googling to find out about the history of the project.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#29

What I like about this project, besides the dedication and professionalism of the team behind it, is that it offers PC gamers a possible way to play Windows-era games moving forward. In a decade or two, we likely won't be able to activate a Windows XP machine (and wouldn't want to with all of the security hazards either) so it's great to have a free and open source project to run our Windows stuff.

Recently I had an issue activating XP on Eee PC after a RAM/SSD upgrade (setting it up as a retro-gaming console, better performance than RetroPie). I had to resort to registry hacks and msoobe to suppress activation forever, despite having product key at the back of the netbook - XP CD wasn't accepting it at all. One more situation where legal owners have to waste more time than pirates... If ReactOS makes it far enough to run on Eee PC, I'll get rid of XP.

Re: ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility

#30
post #18

Seen ReactOS pop up a few times and always thought it was something to do with the Facebook Javascript library. This is really amazing, I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

I didn't downvote you (seems a bit harsh), but just so you know ReactOS development has been going for over 20 years, which is a lot longer than ReactJS (which is approximately 7 years old).
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