NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD • Hacker News Board

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#41

Post by pwnna » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 2:48 PM UTC

mwexler wrote: post #38

While I agree with other commentors that ReactOS in general is slowly becoming irrelevant, I do believe making NTFS a read and write file system via open source would be a useful addition. I did a hunt a little while ago for ways to read and write NTFS on Linux and Mac, and didn't find many options (commercial or open). The most common response (beyond "reformat!") was to just mount the filesystem in a windows box (o…

Yeah I haven't had this problem since at least 2010. NTFS3g should be preinstalled on Ubuntu. Not sure about other distros/Mac, though.

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#42

Post by sj4nz » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 3:03 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #37

chris_wot wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's taken a long time for Linux to support NTFS fully as well. Not surprisingly, ReactOS has taken some time also. I think that's fair enough, unless you particularly enjoy filesystem corruption.

Could someone explain why this is a particularly difficult technical problem?

I think from the book "Show Stopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" by G. Pascal Zachary he mentions that NTFS was developed by an intern for the Microsoft PC system, on hardware that wasn't entirely finished, so, inexperienced file system developer + raw unbaked hardware + time pressures. This is going on an old memory, I haven't read that book since the late 90's.

Also throw in the fact that its proprietary and there is no specification or official test suite that I'm aware of outside of Microsoft.

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#43

Post by m1596 » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 4:19 PM UTC

RexRollman wrote: post #2

I love the idea of ReactOS but it is moving so slowly that I don't see how they can ever be a relevant alternative to Windows. Is my impression wrong?

I feel the exact same. It feels as though ReactOS, if it is ever released, will serve a similar function FreeDOS[1]. When I first stumbled upon the project, I had really high hopes for it but the development team hasn't made up any ground. They're unable to implement features faster than Microsoft is producing new iterations of their system (and with it, new or updated features). If it ever sees the light of day, I would give it a try but until I see more progress I think I will stick with something I can use now.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeDOS

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#44

Post by jeditobe » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 5:16 PM UTC

RexRollman wrote: post #2

I love the idea of ReactOS but it is moving so slowly that I don't see how they can ever be a relevant alternative to Windows. Is my impression wrong?

IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

NTFS support will NOT be included into the upcoming 0.3.17 release. As this support is a bit raw.

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#45

Post by nobleach » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 5:55 PM UTC

I've been seeing this project since around 1999 or something. It was listed on a page of emulators and open source OSes that I visited frequently. Glad to see that it's still alive.

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#46

Post by orionblastar » Wed, Nov 05, 2014, 9:03 PM UTC

I follow ReactOS and other alternative operating systems like Haiku and AROS to see if they made enough progress to use them to replace Windows.

I'd like to see them at a level where the average person can use a DVD or USB stick and install it on their main PC and get apps for it to do what they want.

They haven't gotten that far yet.

I donated to the ReactOS Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns, but they never raised enough money for the Community edition. One feature I did want to see was NTFS support so a LiveCD of ReactOS can run an Antivirus scanner to clean an Infected PC that uses NTFS.

Re: NTFS now supported in ReactOS LiveCD

#47

Post by pyre » Fri, Nov 07, 2014, 4:23 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #28

pyre wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the point is that using this method with MS Office is one thing. Using it with medical software is a whole other ballpark. Using the medical software as a black box and 'getting it to run' on ReactOS might not be up to the level of rigor we would expect for a device that someone's life may depend on...

I think that the point is that using this method with MS Office is one thing. Using it with medical software is a whole other ballpark. According to what an ex-coworker told me, you only wish all medical software using Windows as an OS was remotely well maintained, tested, and vetted as MS Office.

Moving to a different platform with possibly unknown compatibility issues could trigger bugs in the code that were lying dormant.

For example, I worked for a company that was still coming across data corruption issues from time to time after a move between a platform where all memory was zeroed by default to Linux (where it isn't). Plenty of places were memory was allocated, and just used without zeroing it, and then jamming the whole thing into a database as a string.