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Up until Win7 the Win32 subsystem wasn't entirely in userland. In Vista they started the MinWin kernel initiative to extricate it but I don't know if that's ful

Up until Win7 the Win32 subsystem wasn't entirely in userland. In Vista they started the MinWin kernel initiative to extricate it but I don't know if that's full come to fruition in Windows 10. If it has then you could theoretically write a WinNT interface for Linux and run the Win32 userland on it. But that's pretty much asking Microsoft to sue you into oblivion. * According to Wikipedia, the MinWin project started after Server 2003 shipped.

chris_wot 11y ago
Wouldn't Microsoft have sued the ReactOS guys then?
- cptskippy 11y ago
  No, ReactOS is an implementation of the Win32 API, not the WinNT kernel. There's a layer of separation between WinNT and Win32 that's basically an API. In theory if you implemented this API, then you could run Microsoft's Win32 subsystem on your API without Microsoft's underlying WinNT kernel. That Win32 layer would be Microsoft code and they'd sue the heck out of you for running it. The WinNT kernel was originally designed so that Subsystems would run on top of it and those Subsystems would provide the interfaces for applications. Originally WinNT had Win32, OS/2 and POSIX subsystems that ran on top of it. Over time the distinction between WinNT and Win32 erroded while the OS/2 subsystem was canned and the POSIX one neglected. Starting after Server 2003 they began to redefine the boundary between WinNT and Win32. The primary reason was to allow for headless Servers that didn't have the overhead of the GUI (Win32) or other unnecessary functionality like the Printer systems.
  - chris_wot 11y ago
    That's entirely wrong. ReactOS implements the subsystems that allow drivers to run and a whole bunch more besides. If you don't believe me, then I refer you to the following: https://github.com/mirror/reactos/tree/master/reactos/dll/ntdll https://github.com/mirror/reactos/tree/master/reactos/dll/nt... The Wiki itself states that: "The ReactOS project reimplements a state-of-the-art and open NT-like operating system based on the NT architecture. It comes with a WIN32 subsystem, NT driver compatibility and a handful of useful applications and tools." https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS You might also want to review: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl.exe https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl.exe And also: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_Core https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_Core And here is the header for the kernel functions used in ntdll.h: https://github.com/mirror/reactos/blob/master/reactos/include/ndk/kefuncs.h https://github.com/mirror/reactos/blob/master/reactos/includ...

chris_wot 11y ago

Wouldn't Microsoft have sued the ReactOS guys then?

cptskippy 11y ago
No, ReactOS is an implementation of the Win32 API, not the WinNT kernel. There's a layer of separation between WinNT and Win32 that's basically an API. In theory if you implemented this API, then you could run Microsoft's Win32 subsystem on your API without Microsoft's underlying WinNT kernel. That Win32 layer would be Microsoft code and they'd sue the heck out of you for running it. The WinNT kernel was originally designed so that Subsystems would run on top of it and those Subsystems would provide the interfaces for applications. Originally WinNT had Win32, OS/2 and POSIX subsystems that ran on top of it. Over time the distinction between WinNT and Win32 erroded while the OS/2 subsystem was canned and the POSIX one neglected. Starting after Server 2003 they began to redefine the boundary between WinNT and Win32. The primary reason was to allow for headless Servers that didn't have the overhead of the GUI (Win32) or other unnecessary functionality like the Printer systems.
- chris_wot 11y ago
  That's entirely wrong. ReactOS implements the subsystems that allow drivers to run and a whole bunch more besides. If you don't believe me, then I refer you to the following: https://github.com/mirror/reactos/tree/master/reactos/dll/ntdll https://github.com/mirror/reactos/tree/master/reactos/dll/nt... The Wiki itself states that: "The ReactOS project reimplements a state-of-the-art and open NT-like operating system based on the NT architecture. It comes with a WIN32 subsystem, NT driver compatibility and a handful of useful applications and tools." https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS You might also want to review: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl.exe https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Ntoskrnl.exe And also: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_Core https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_Core And here is the header for the kernel functions used in ntdll.h: https://github.com/mirror/reactos/blob/master/reactos/include/ndk/kefuncs.h https://github.com/mirror/reactos/blob/master/reactos/includ...