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ReactOS - tried it?

A

aidanjm

Lifer
ReactOS is supposed to be a windows compatible operating system that is completely free. The programmers have reverse engineered key parts of Windows XP, then written their own compatible Windows APIs. Apparently it isn't quite ready for "prime time" yet, altho many popular Windows XP programs are already running on ReactOS with no problems.

Anyone tried it?


"ReactOS is a 100% Open Source (mostly GPL) rewrite of the Windows Kernel. At its heart, ReactOS is an initiative to create an open-source project that is fully compatible with the all Windows NT-based drivers, applications, and services."

ReactOS is a project intended to bring together the power of open-source, the usability of Microsoft?s Windows, and most importantly the immense driver and application database available to Windows users into one operating system that can distributed free of charge and licensed at will. ReactOS is a true community-driven initiative to make a better operating system, and it strikes at the heart of the corporate OS world by appealing directly to the users of Windows, theoretically providing the very things that Microsoft advertises Windows as being excellent for ? without the price tag and with greater flexibility.

But ReactOS is much more than just a GPL Windows-Clone. Rather, ReactOS takes the Windows code a step further by stripping it down to the bare minimum ? leaving a kernel that is (supposedly) fast, light, clean, and powerful with a more stable user interface with greater flexibility where implementation is concerned."

ReactOS reviewed
 
Nope. Not yet.

I might this weekend. I've been playing around with Qemu and I have to say it's pretty good system, it should help me play around with this sort of thing until I get the whole 'Xen + VT' thing figured out.
 
I wonder how long till it will be easy to fire up windows applications in non-windows environments with no compatibility problems or speed hits?
 
Originally posted by: aidanjm
I wonder how long till it will be easy to fire up windows applications in non-windows environments with no compatibility problems or speed hits?
Click to expand...

Never. Not through software compatability layers. Not unless Microsoft releases the source code, which is very unlikely, and even then it would take more then a couple years.

Windows is just way to complex and difficult to work with. Even Microsoft can't do it entirely. There are subtle incompatabilities with some Win9x software and NT-based operating systems. Windows 2003 is not able to run lots of the applications you can run easily in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, for instance.

The only way to do it is using a VM with a hypervisor and hardware that supports it. Then you run Windows in it's entirety in a virtual machine and use that to run the applications. Thats the way people are headed because creating software compatabilities can work with a handfull of programs, but not all of them.

Hell FreeDOS is just barely able to do that for most things with MS-DOS and Windows is a thousand times more complex.

 
Originally posted by: drag
Originally posted by: aidanjm
I wonder how long till it will be easy to fire up windows applications in non-windows environments with no compatibility problems or speed hits?
Click to expand...

Never. Not through software compatability layers. Not unless Microsoft releases the source code, which is very unlikely, and even then it would take more then a couple years.

Windows is just way to complex and difficult to work with. Even Microsoft can't do it entirely. There are subtle incompatabilities with some Win9x software and NT-based operating systems. Windows 2003 is not able to run lots of the applications you can run easily in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, for instance.

The only way to do it is using a VM with a hypervisor and hardware that supports it. Then you run Windows in it's entirety in a virtual machine and use that to run the applications. Thats the way people are headed because creating software compatabilities can work with a handfull of programs, but not all of them.

Hell FreeDOS is just barely able to do that for most things with MS-DOS and Windows is a thousand times more complex.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's pretty much the same thing you said last year, but with the opposite conclusion 🙂
 
WINE has been at this for 13 years now and they're just going for userland compatibility, how do you expect the ReactOS guys to keep up with the less documented kernel-level compatibility?
 
Tried their released LiveCD and it BSOD'ed (ntoskrnl.exe). Tried one of the daily build LiveCD's and it sat for 10 minutes on the boot screen (no HD activity).

:thumbsdown: I give it two thumbs down. :thumbsdown:

Edit: This was in an IBM T43 that is 100% stable in XP Pro
 
Just for kicks I booted their VMWare image. I give it a 'meh'. Seems like a *really* stripped down version of Windows.
 
Please bear in mind that ReactOS 0.3.0 is still in alpha stage and is not recommended for everyday use.

10 years and they're still in Alpha Stage, LMAO 😉

That should tell you something, sheeesh 😉

ALOHA
 
Originally posted by: Brazen
Originally posted by: drag
Originally posted by: aidanjm
I wonder how long till it will be easy to fire up windows applications in non-windows environments with no compatibility problems or speed hits?
Click to expand...

Never. Not through software compatability layers. Not unless Microsoft releases the source code, which is very unlikely, and even then it would take more then a couple years.

Windows is just way to complex and difficult to work with. Even Microsoft can't do it entirely. There are subtle incompatabilities with some Win9x software and NT-based operating systems. Windows 2003 is not able to run lots of the applications you can run easily in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, for instance.

The only way to do it is using a VM with a hypervisor and hardware that supports it. Then you run Windows in it's entirety in a virtual machine and use that to run the applications. Thats the way people are headed because creating software compatabilities can work with a handfull of programs, but not all of them.

Hell FreeDOS is just barely able to do that for most things with MS-DOS and Windows is a thousand times more complex.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's pretty much the same thing you said last year, but with the opposite conclusion 🙂
Click to expand...

Not realy.

'Very Compatable" =! "No compatibility problems or speed hits?"

Your still going to run into numerious problems irregardless.
 
Not going to work for numerious reasons mentioned already

other problem...is vista is coming out which means time for massive new rewrites 😉 at best I'm guessing those working on the project are just gaining massive experience for themselves as they have fun playing with it
 
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