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ReactOS

reactos.org

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Re: ReactOS

#21

Post by pizza234 »

jamesu wrote: post #17
yaseer wrote: post #7

Does anybody use ReactOS regularly? What's your experience with it? Very curious to see how far it's come for practical usage.

Every time I’ve tried it, it falls apart within minutes of using it. You’d think after 20 years of development it might be somewhat stable but I guess not.

IMO, the is a monumental underestimation of the man-hours put into make Windows as compatible as it is, even ignoring the fact that Microsoft's engineers are/were highly skilled.

I like the ReactOS idea, but I think it will take decades to be compatible enough - and I'm even talking about enough.

If the objective was to run obsolete software, I personally had to distribute resources, I'd just do assign them to Wine. It's surely much more productive to make software compatible on a per-case basis, rather than writing a whole operating system with the objective of being compatible.

Re: ReactOS

#22

Post by yaseer »

jamesu wrote: post #17
yaseer wrote: post #7

Does anybody use ReactOS regularly? What's your experience with it? Very curious to see how far it's come for practical usage.

Every time I’ve tried it, it falls apart within minutes of using it. You’d think after 20 years of development it might be somewhat stable but I guess not.

It's both a very hard problem, and a very interesting problem.

My impression is that most of the work on the project is motivated by interest in learning about OSs, rather than demand from real use-cases.

If the problem had strong enough demand from real use-cases, I presume it would be stable by now.

Re: ReactOS

#23

Post by sushicalculus »

kemonocode wrote: post #15
kube-system wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't mean anything yet because it hasn't been decided :) But it seems that an Oracle win would mean you couldn't implement any interfaces compatible with another piece of software without a license.

In practice I don't see too many companies going full on litigious towards small players or end users- especially not Microsoft as many of their moves as of late hinge on interoperability. But it'd be certainly a worry as it'd be very much weaponized when it comes to big companies against each other, which of course will affect the end user one way or another.

> In practice I don't see too many companies going full on litigious towards small players or end users

We should introduce you to Oracle. This is exactly what they do. They audit their own customers in a very hostile way.

Never underestimate a company in decline, as they grasp for ways to increase revenues and profits for shareholders (or founders)

Re: ReactOS

#25

Post by forgotpwd16 »

ForHackernews wrote: post #18
qwerty_123 wrote: post #12

How does this work with different versions of Windows? I know a few apps that are broken on Windows 7+ and it would be nice to have a modern OS that can run older Windows apps without having to have that actual OS in a VM.

Unless they've moved their target, ReactOS was aiming for binary compatibility with Windows XP.

https://reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_FAQ

To be exact they aim for compatibility with Server 2003.

Re: ReactOS

#26

Post by zerocrates »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #20
2bitencryption wrote: post #9

I just realized - what does the Google vs Oracle ruling mean for ReactOS, and also Wine?

The lack of commercial purpose of ReactOS (and Wine) and it's primary goal of interoperability, plus the fact that it doesn't really damage the value of the original Windows platform, means it's probably a very easy case of fair use. Android isn't fair use, is a massive commercial endeavour, and has obliterated the value of mobile Java, while breaking interoperability with Java. Oracle winning the case will not be ki…

Do you really think there'd still be a place for mobile Java now in the absence of Android? Seems pretty unlikely to me.

Re: ReactOS

#27

Post by bdcravens »

kemonocode wrote: post #15
kube-system wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't mean anything yet because it hasn't been decided :) But it seems that an Oracle win would mean you couldn't implement any interfaces compatible with another piece of software without a license.

In practice I don't see too many companies going full on litigious towards small players or end users- especially not Microsoft as many of their moves as of late hinge on interoperability. But it'd be certainly a worry as it'd be very much weaponized when it comes to big companies against each other, which of course will affect the end user one way or another.

As long as ReactOS doesn’t challenge their enterprise revenue, they should be fine.

Re: ReactOS

#28

Post by Koshkin »

offtop5 wrote: post #4

How well does this actually work ? Wouldn't Ubuntu+ Wine be a better combo for most ?

The goal of ReactOS is the binary compatibility not just with application programs but also with Windows device drivers.

Re: ReactOS

#29

Post by unicornfinder »

Jaruzel wrote: post #19

I'm saddened a little bit to see stuff like theming has been built. I was hoping that ReactOS would stick with the Windows 2000 look and feel. I also think that with the limited resources they have, the project team would be better focusing on improving compatibility, over shiny desktop effects. That said... I firmly believe there is a place for ReactOS. Eventually, XP will fail to run on new hardware, and when that…

To be fair I'd imagine the people writing the theming support probably aren't the same people writing the compatibility layers for the OS.

Wholeheartedly agreed and it's also why I have so much respect for Microsoft and the backwards compatibility they've achieved in Windows.

Re: ReactOS

#30

Post by zokier »

offtop5 wrote: post #4

How well does this actually work ? Wouldn't Ubuntu+ Wine be a better combo for most ?

ReactOS is most useful for stuff that needs kernel level compatibility or comparable things. For most userland things I'd expect Wine to be smoother overall experience for now.
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