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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

#181

Post by mkesper »

dragontamer wrote: post #77
mgummelt wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Wine and ReactOS are practically sister-projects at this point that share a ton of code. ReactOS does replicate the NT Kernel, so in theory (if it ever gets there), ReactOS would be able to run Windows Drivers. IE: the "real" NVidia and AMD Drivers or any other kernel-level drivers that exist in Windows land. These days, AMD (and even NVidia) have decent Linux drivers. And WiFi drivers have Windows->Linux translators…

You know you can use ACLs on Linux kernels and filesystems?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Access_Control_Lists

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

#182

Post by _o_ »

bad_user wrote: post #147
earenndil wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux succeeded because bsd had legal issues.

People like to bring that up, but Linux also succeeded because of an open development model that BSD lacked. Linus Tolvards is basically the poster boy of Open Source.

For desktop, I use opensuse (just clarification, to avoid holly wars here).

I have migrated my servers to FreeBSD not due to problems with kernel, but due to everything else, the distributions are really doing horrible job maintaining userspace, not to mention failures like systemd. Also trusting data to linux is an interesting ride, from btrfs failures to "merging" (pun intended) those failures to zfs (https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/7401). FreeBSD has much slower pace of development and this is good for stability. Zfs is rock solid beeing part of OS for decade, docker was ported to it in 14 days, due to jails which are there for 15 years+ and field tested for years (while I was listening from linux guys years that chroot is all you need). I wont complain about linux features, but for BSD, I know that after update everything will work exactly like it worked before and this is more important for my bussiness than all the bleading edge features.

And then you have all the other issues that Linus explains here, for debian but same problems other distributions have (and yeah, I am just a bit younger and highly proficient in c/c++ on multiple operating systems, developing system level application for more then 20 years, that is probably why I share his opinion): https://youtu.be/1Mg5_gxNXTo?t=459

Linux has succeeded as it was fast by cutting corners in development. And it worked for a while, now problems started to stockpile and turtle is starting to catch up.

Regarding the "open model", I don't understand what would that be, BSD license is more permissive than GPL? Not to mention a shame when (https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-beats-internal-legal-thr...) kernel developer for linux started suing companies not releasing the source code.

Just to wrap it up, if ReactOS will be able to keep the pace of development with the Windows changes it has a good chance that the year of ReactOS on desktop will be much sooner than the year of Linux on desktop. And this is what we want, not Linux OS on desktop but Open source OS on desktop, right?

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

#183

Post by stctgion »

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #107
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…

> soon (well, years, but still) people will be using it everywhere as a replacement for Windows. No they won't. It's a fringe OS that requires technical expertise to install. Not only that but it looks like "old Windows". Users won't want to work with a Windows from a decade ago. Not only that but it'll have bugs and no support. You'll see tiny pockets of people using it but as Microsoft gets closer and closer to sim…

I can see ruining old but required Windows binaries without paying for a Windows license as a totally valid use case.

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

#184

Post by Yetanfou »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #137
swiley wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just run a FOSS OS?

Hardware support of laptops for FOSS is not that good unless you restrict yourself to Dell or IBM.

A strange argument: hardware support of laptops for MacOS is officially non-existent unless you restrict yourself to Apple. As soon as you're willing to consider 'Hackintosh' installations you should also consider Linux distributions as those are generally far easier to install and maintain.

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

#185

Post by cm2187 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #172
smt88 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> * I know plenty of people who would say that Windows had its peak usability around Windows 2000/2003 and only got heavier and more confusing later on.* Given Microsoft's mostly successful effort to make Windows more friendly to the user, I find it hard to believe any of these people have extensive experience with Windows 7+

Oh, but they did. There was a series of problems with Vista that pissed people off, then there was the quite-ok Windows 7, and then Microsoft screwed everything up with Windows 8. The irony is, they've managed to fix a lot of Windows 8 UX problems in Windows 10, but then the telemetry stories and in-your-face pushing of the upgrade from 8 to 10 left some people I know stranded at 8 and afraid to try out 10. I guess t…

They fixed some UX problems but left others. Two control panels, massive grey buttons that feel odd when used with a mouse, dysfunctional and random start menu, full screen modal notifications (windows server 2016), etc

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

#186

Post by kalleboo »

DEFCON28 wrote: post #129
da_chicken wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Huh? Why would you even say this? There's no MS-DOS code in Windows 95, and you couldn't exit Windows 95 to a command prompt. Are you just trying to throw some FUD into this conversation?

You could even configure Windows 95/98 to boot directly to DOS by setting BootGUI=0 in MSDOS.SYS, and then you'd have to run "WIN" to boot Windows

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

#187

Post by kyberias »

DEFCON28 wrote: post #129
da_chicken wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Huh? Why would you even say this? There's no MS-DOS code in Windows 95, and you couldn't exit Windows 95 to a command prompt. Are you just trying to throw some FUD into this conversation?

I didn't remember it either, but Windows 95 actually allowed to exit to DOS.

https://guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/startupshutdown/shutdo...

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

#188

Post by voltagex_ »

andreiw wrote: post #135
Koshkin wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ugh. This website saved my ass trying to make HID devices work on top of the completely non-conforming Linaro DwUsbHostDxe driver (look at https://github.com/andreiw/RaspberryPiPkg/commits/master/Dri... for a laugh). I did end up having to hit the USB spec in the end, but it's a legit resource to get a birds-eye view of the whole USB1 and USB2 thing. It doesn't make USB simpler, but sure makes it more approachable.

Offtopic: What's the end goal of all this UEFI work you're doing for the Pi?

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

#189

Post by amaccuish »

chris_wot wrote: post #156
andreiw wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to invalidate all of your arguments, but it does “just install” in a VM without needing technical experience. To reach any mass of users (outside of turnkey solutions where the end users may not know or care), you need commercial support and the later needs concrete identified market segments. To parallel Wine - ROS needs its own CrossOver (but not Cedega).

I agree - I literally downloaded the ISO, booted it up, it installed in VirtualBox. Of course, the network driver didn't work, sadly :(

change to use pc net iii, there's a driver for that built in

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

#190

Post by voltagex_ »

andreiw wrote: post #139

So I'm a ReactOS fanboi, but... but... - You need to fix your flaccid dev community. Your forums have a terrible S/N ratio. IRC may be great and all, but I don't see any hard documentation behind any design discussions or development. I do see crazy shite like "can I run ReactOS on Playstation 2". The forums make your project seem dead, which it clearly isn't. - You need to fix your flaccid dev community. It needs a…

Have you logged bugs on all of those instruction issues you had?

I suspect the core devs for ReactOS are very few in number and this probably gives rise to the issues you see. But a rant here won't fix much.

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