Actually, they are trying to be like the Windows XP/2003 base and not the newer Windows. It is because Microsoft makes their APIs secret and undocumented in mod

Actually, they are trying to be like the Windows XP/2003 base and not the newer Windows. It is because Microsoft makes their APIs secret and undocumented in modern Windows and over time people figure them out. ReactOS shares code with WINE to run Windows apps, the older the better. 64 bit Windows can't run 16-bit apps and that is what NTVDM does for ReactOS running 16-bit DOS and 16-bit Windows programs. ReactOS has a small memory footprint of about 48M of RAM or so, because it doesn't have services for it like BITS etc and just runs Windows Apps and Drivers. So it is better for older PCs to run on because of the small memory footprint. I have donated to ReactOS, HakuOS, and AROS before because I want to see them get ready for consumers to use them as an alternative to Windows that isn't Linux. ReactOS is a Windows alternative, HakuOS is a BeOS alternative, AROS is an AmigaOS alternative. It is a chicken and egg situation where people don't want to develop for it or support it until it has good enough apps for it that can surf the Internet, do Office documents, etc like Windows can.