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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

#281
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They must've meant AROS http://www.aros.org/

Within the Amiga community there's a certain level of admiration for HaikuOS, as BeOS/HaikuOS is seen by these individuals as a spiritual successor to AmigaOS. As you point out, AROS is the open-source reimplementation of AmigaOS, so it's worth mentioning it, I just wanted to clarify why the Amiga+Haiku link might have been made.

Those of you discussing Amiga might find this comment from skrzyp interesting:

https://lobste.rs/s/vkpekg/morphos_3_10_released#c_ktgnn3

It gives a huge, deep history lesson from author's perspective covering important events, hardware/software, and especially the culture. It was fascinating. Also made me hold off on MorphOS for one of my projects.

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

#282
post #176
post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows have become bloated to the point I have rather installed openSUSE and after ~20 years I am not touching them any more. I don't like linux (it has another set of problems) and I would be very glad if I could use ReactOS and instead using firewall, just recompile the winsock dll with my own instructions (just one example). Windows will never be free os, you will pay heavly with your privacy and from what I have…

> Windows have become bloated I don't agree. Vista was a mess but they seem to have made such tight performance budgets for 7, 8 and 10 that any computer which can run the 11-year-old Vista can also run 10.

Just check kernel32.dll, it was CLEAN for years, now there are references to .net framework and it is becoming a mess. Believe me, Windows are becoming a mess, I never liked linux (actually I hated it) but the directions that Windows are taking are worrying (it is the same perspective when I say linux is becoming a bloated piece of , with each release it is becoming worse but at least it is open source. But dont get me wrong, I am writting this from purely technical perspective, for a typical user, everything is just fine. No need to worry, except maybe Windows 365 in 2020.

(I will refrain from further commenting as my technical perspective is hitting into large fanbase of both systems and karma here is really not beeing able to handle it. At the end it is the terror of the less technical average.)

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

#283

I've submitted non-clean-room reverse engineered code to ReactOS years ago when I was younger and it was accepted with no questions asked. But since that day, I can't bring myself to believe all of this is clean-room reverse engineered. I hope it was an outlier event and that external contributions are better audited today.

Superman flies. Spiderman spiders. Trolls exist.

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

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are hundreds of millions of lines of ReactJS in production today and hundreds of millions more coming. If you think 20 years from now all that is going to be re-written I've got a bridge to sell you. JQuery is 11 years old now. ReactOS is a goal and nothing more. Nobody is using it right now because it's barely usable outside of a VM, and even then it's software compatibility is smaller than WINE, let alone Win…

> There are hundreds of millions of lines of ReactJS in production today and hundreds of millions more coming. 10 years ago there were 0. The churn in JS code is just too high.

10 years ago was JQuery, Backbone and KnockoutJS. There are still millions of lines of all three of those in production today. The churn in popularity is high, but there are MOUNTAINS of legacy code out there.

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

#285
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It lights a fire under M$'s asses to make windows competitive Err... no. Not unless the installed base reaches a critical mass. And certainly not when the market share is not even 0.1%. macOS (or even desktop Linux) has a higher installed base and they don’t bother Microsoft significantly. I’d be more optimistic if the OS had not been around for two decades. It had its chance when the likes of Vista was released. If…

> (or even desktop Linux) has a higher installed base and they don’t bother Microsoft significantly. Except for they did. I'm pretty sure WSL was about developers who had preferred GNU/Linux-based systems (or macOS, since it can be compatible for some cases) for work, not about just running some *nix server software on Windows machines.

I said “significantly” — macOS and Linux have existed for ages, yet Microsoft is starting with WSL just now. Also, as far as I know, WSL is a by-product of the Poject Astoria - not something Microsoft set out to do. They probably thought, “We’ve done most of the work anyway, might as well get something out of it.”

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's that? It's open source and they wrote the whole thing from scratch. Even if they abandon the project it's open source and work can continue even after MS has their way with them.

They'll try to claim to have patents on key functions, API copyright like Oracle, or look and feel with either type of law. IBM destroyed a company that used Hercules emulator to replace its mainframes with compatibility or competition arguments attempted with failure. Oracle vs Google on API issue shows what can happen when big money gets thrown at lawyers. For patents, Microsoft collecting over a billion dollars on…

Honestly, I don't think we'd try to destroy ReactOS at all. Windows has stopped being a cash cow for us - recently, we've even started to disband the Windows org, moving the kernel to Azure etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if we open-sourced NT, at the rate things are going. Windows devs are likely flattered by ReactOS at this point.

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

#287
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a bunch of people (mostly gamers) who refuse to upgrade from Windows 7 to 8 or 10, mostly because of usability and privacy concerns. Eventually, they'll have to (DirectX 12, but I'm sure there's a ton of APIs for non-games as well and drivers will stop being updated for Win7). But if ReactOS can reach a level of maturity and compatibility to please such people, there's a sizeable niche there of people who: 1.…

I definitely count myself as one of those gamers who hasn't moved off 7 yet for my gaming and music production. On a machine like that, windows is just a layer between the game and the hardware and the less other stuff, the better. 8 and 10 have little value add for someone who just wants program compatibility-7 was plenty stable.

8 and 8.1 had huge performance enhancements, though. Easily the fastest Windows to-date.

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

#288
post #192
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just run a FOSS OS?

A fair question, I actually did install two different Linux distributions a couple weeks ago. For some background I'm a software developer, and consider myself reasonably competent in using Linux. I started with Fedora. Installed, seemed nice. Then I did a dnf update or something like that. It froze for 4 hours in the middle of the install. So I hit ctrl+z. When I restarted my computer GRUB was attempting to boot an…

If you ever feel like trying Linux again, perhaps try Manjaro? It's a good place to start for a new user, and more polished and stable than Ubuntu and Fedora by far.

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Users won't want to work with a Windows from a decade ago. Not only that but it'll have bugs and no support. Depending on the age group, I guess. 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. If I know that ReactOS had a good chance of running most regular Windows applications, I'd install it on my mother's laptop…

I think it's been downhill from Windows 2000, XP was OK once you turned off the tellytubbies UI.

Frankly I can't think of anything they've added since 2000 to windows (except better security) that was an improvement.

I occasionally have to use Windows for work and I really hate Windows 10, it's just a chore to deal with when you only boot it every couple of weeks just on the updates.

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

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft has more budget for making coffee for the legal department than ReactOS has budget. Even if the lawsuit has no chance of prevailing, it still can force the ReactOS team to shut down. Oracle made a convincing enough case against Google about copying APIs, IIRC.

You forget about the bigger FOSS community goodwill that they've carefully been trying to cultivate in the past few years that they will throw away by doing that.

I don't think they value goodwill over protecting their core business.
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