ReactOS

(reactos.org)

69 points | by DeathArrow 4 hours ago

8 comments

  • ChrisArchitect 2 hours ago
  • jeditobe 11 minutes ago
    https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/06/171220/reactos-unif...

    ReactOS Unifies Installation Media, Introduces GUI Installer and New ATA Driver

  • WesSouza 2 hours ago
    Why is this relevant today?
    • flaburgan 1 hour ago
      I think it actually is even more relevant today than 10 years ago, as the only real production use case I can imagine for it is specialized industrial software written only for XP that no one wants to update to w10 because of the risk of breaking production but which are running on a not supported anymore OS full of vulnerabilities. If really ReactOS achieves parity then that's a possible niche.
      • bb88 31 minutes ago
        I remember seeing laser cutter drivers which only ran on Windows XP, but the cutters themselves were still in use and worked great.

        For (ham) radio programming software which often only supports windows, getting the programmer working on reactOS seems like a win.

      • deaddodo 1 hour ago
        That was the argument back in the day too. For people/devices not looking to run Windows XP/Vista.

        I don't think the metric has ever changed. What has is the scope as Microsoft continues to chug along. But, I believe, their goal is still primarily some hybrid of Win98/Win2K compatibility.

      • rib3ye 1 hour ago
        I think OP means, this project is very old, what's new about it?
        • chasil 54 minutes ago
          It runs btrfs, if you like to live dangerously.
    • oytis 1 hour ago
      When was it relevant?
    • bananaflag 1 hour ago
      Same as Haiku
  • amelius 2 hours ago
    Note: unrelated to React.
    • Nursie 2 hours ago
      Considerably predates it I think. I’ve followed ReactOS on and off for years, since the early 00s.

      Looking at the website, they celebrated their 30th anniversary recently which is pretty impressive.

    • throwaway613746 2 hours ago
      [dead]
  • Nursie 2 hours ago
    Always an interesting project and some great achievements, but it’s hard to see it being more useful than Linux + Wine (or now Proton)

    Does anyone use ReactOS in a production-like fashion?

    • dosshell 1 hour ago
      Drivers exclusive for Windows.

      You know your old Soundblaster AWE64 Gold, with all bundled programs [0]. Or that very special Analog Video grabber card you have.

      Wine is user space. This is the full OS.

      [0] Ok, that maybe works in linux, but you get your point.

    • grishka 2 hours ago
      Not yet but it seems like they've finally started working towards that. Driver compatibility has improved dramatically over the last few years, for one.
      • deaddodo 1 hour ago
        Do they finally have a WDM compatible driver stack? For a long time, that was their biggest hamper to being anything useful as a real desktop.

        If they can pass that hurdle + add WDDM, I'd be willing to take another look at them even if application compatibility remains hit and miss.

    • gunalx 2 hours ago
      Last i tried it a couple years ago, it was basically impossible to install natively. (On basic intel haswell system)
  • andrewstuart 2 hours ago
    A windows compatible OS is a good idea but it looks more likely to be Linux.
    • grishka 2 hours ago
      As someone who very much dislikes the Linux/Unix philosophy, I'm happy to see diversity.
    • rvz 2 hours ago
      You mean Windows subsystem for Linux.

      Having a full Windows desktop with a Linux install saves me from formatting and partitioning into yet another installation mess that Linux still has and choosing a distro while not messing around with display managers or searching around why some apps do not display correctly when connecting to an external monitor.

      The best Linux distro is Windows (with WSL).

  • souvlakee 3 hours ago
    Not funny anymore.
    • Borgz 3 hours ago
      It never was supposed to be.