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

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

#91

Post by richard_todd »

viraptor wrote: post #82
richard_todd wrote: post #74

One day when Windows drifts too far away from its golden age functionality, it will be great if ReactOS can fill the gap. However, I feel like MS could one-up them overnight by providing a sandboxed 32-bit XP VM as part of current windows. We’d get back DOS support and compatibility with old programs would be better. Call it Windows Subsystem for Windows or whatever. That would also pave the way to removing a lot of…

What's the point in doing this for MS? There's no money in it and they'd need a serious team backing it. And by no money, I mean at scale - there are going to be small companies needing something like that and there are going to be huge companies. Huge ones already got a public offer of "pay an increasing tax for XP support" and likely a private "this corporate deal is possible" if they're important enough. The small…

Like a sibling comment mentioned, it wouldn’t be the first time MS has done this sort of thing (XP on certain SKUs of Vista or maybe it was 7). I assume they already have a serious team backing tons of legacy Win32 cruft. So, instead of maintaining that, they freeze it and shift it into a VM. MS gets to cut down modern Win32 to something closer to the UWP subset, and users that want it—-make it an optional subsystem—-get better legacy compatibility than they have had in years.

Maybe the 2020 win7 end of life would be a good time to do something like this. I don’t know if there is a good enough financial reason for MS, but from a user’s perspective I think it would be better than the situation today.

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

#92

Post by exikyut »

middleclick wrote: post #28

Can anyone comment if I can install old Windows 2000 games on this, like C&C Red Alert? Would it work?

PSA:

The best way it seems to check the AppDB is to do something like

  site:https://appdb.winehq.org "simtower"
and

  site:https://appdb.winehq.org "c&c" "red alert" "2"
(The search box on the website is just google custom search)

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

#93

Post by dogma1138 »

shakna wrote: post #44
owenversteeg wrote: post #34

This has been one of my favorite software projects to watch, because it's such an insanely monumental undertaking and moves so damn slowly. There were people working on this two decades ago, putting in tiny fixes and little bits of code and whatnot, and they did it even knowing that basically nobody would see their work for decades. Hell, I have never seen a ReactOS installation in the wild, and I'm the kind of perso…

> Hell, I have never seen a ReactOS installation in the wild It's not especially common, but I do know of a couple kiosks and a PoS system that run ReactOS under the hood to avoid Windows licensing.

How the hell do they get PCI certified with ReactOS?

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

#94

Post by exikyut »

Koshkin wrote: post #57
snvzz wrote: post #54

The USB support isn't quite there yet (major rework didn't make it this release) but otherwise this is a pretty good release with massive progress in actual usefulness.

For why USB is hard, see http://www.usbmadesimple.co.uk/ .

Arg! This is so awesome, but is as though USB 3 never existed.

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

#95

Post by newsbinator »

xenophonf wrote: post #75
bitL wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's the case. Unfortunately, ASUS didn't provide installation media, just recovery media, which only works for their 4GB/12GB SSD combo and was failing operation when I tried it on a new SSD. So I tried regular XP Home ISO, but was out of luck.

I'm not a Windows licensing expert, but this is basically how it works: 1. You can't use the OEM license with retail installation media. 2. You don't get OEM installation media because the license is tied to the hardware. 3. The OEM recovery media can't be restored to different hardware. 4. The OEM license key can't be used to install a retail Windows install on a different computer.

It's a strange situation when a Windows licensing expert is actually a thing.

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

#96

Post by PinkMilkshake »

mgummelt wrote: post #76
owenversteeg wrote: post #34

This has been one of my favorite software projects to watch, because it's such an insanely monumental undertaking and moves so damn slowly. There were people working on this two decades ago, putting in tiny fixes and little bits of code and whatnot, and they did it even knowing that basically nobody would see their work for decades. Hell, I have never seen a ReactOS installation in the wild, and I'm the kind of perso…

Why would one use ReactOS over Wine? I read this page: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/WINE , but it didn't really provide an answer. I understand that ReactOS doesn't require Linux as a dependency, but is that a significant win?

ReactOS is meant to be a drop-in solution. Just install it over your existing Windows installation and keep using your machine like nothing has changed. That's the goal anyway.

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

#97

Post by tom169 »

dogma1138 wrote: post #93
shakna wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hell, I have never seen a ReactOS installation in the wild It's not especially common, but I do know of a couple kiosks and a PoS system that run ReactOS under the hood to avoid Windows licensing.

How the hell do they get PCI certified with ReactOS?

Typically credit card processing is handled entirely by a physical device plugged into the computer. The computer isn't in a PCI zone.

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

#98

Post by dogma1138 »

tom169 wrote: post #97
dogma1138 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How the hell do they get PCI certified with ReactOS?

Typically credit card processing is handled entirely by a physical device plugged into the computer. The computer isn't in a PCI zone.

The POS is very much in the PCI zone, the PED and card readers will be certified separately.

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

#99

Post by da_chicken »

astro_robot wrote: post #83
owenversteeg wrote: post #34

This has been one of my favorite software projects to watch, because it's such an insanely monumental undertaking and moves so damn slowly. There were people working on this two decades ago, putting in tiny fixes and little bits of code and whatnot, and they did it even knowing that basically nobody would see their work for decades. Hell, I have never seen a ReactOS installation in the wild, and I'm the kind of perso…

How long did it take for Windows 95 to be developed? It would be an interesting contrasts between Enterprise and Charitable development.

Windows 95 still borrowed a lot of code from MS-DOS, though. That's why you could still exit to the command prompt. I think you could do that through WinME.

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

#100

Post by da_chicken »

bitL wrote: post #29
rocky1138 wrote: post #4

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 en…

I think by the time the OS is usable the available hardware won't have any drivers. I think it will be a VM only OS.
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