6 ms·

ReactOS is the saddest thing. Why would anyone do this? For 13 years? Why?

DominoTree 10y ago
Your comment is the saddest thing.
nxc18 10y ago
Operating systems are cool. Just about every popular general purpose operating system is some variation on UNIX. That is sad, just like it would be sad if JavaScript, TypeScript and Coffescript were the only popular programming languages. The only difference in scenarios is that the OS is much more significant and critical than the programming language. Windows is fundamentally different from Linux and UNIX. ReactOS is a clean room reimplementation of that, bringing NT's many excellent ideas to the open source community. That is a good thing, even if you never get to use it. Don't forget that, just like in every other part of life, different != bad.
- theamk 10y ago
  Agree, NT has many excellent ideas. But re-implementing it today seems silly. Are you going to have messages with take two integers only, then stick two 16-bit fields into second one? Look at these articles, do you think anyone should be implementing API like this in 21st century: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20070710-00/?p=26083 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20070710-00/?p=... https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120913-00/?p=6613 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120913-00/?p=... I am all for variety. Hurd, L4 -- these are fundamentally different from Unix and very interesting. ReactOS? well if you enjoy debugging windows kernel drivers without source code...
  - chris_wot 10y ago
    That's the Win32 executive subsystem, which is only a small (albeit important) part of Windows NT. The ReactOS project aims to get binary driver compatibility with Windows, amongst other things. And yes, lots of people enjoy reverse engineering things like drivers.
- dec0dedab0de 10y ago
  Just about every popular general purpose operating system is some variation on UNIX. Including Windows 9x which is based on DOS which is based on Xenix which is based on Unix. I didn't learn this until a few years ago, and it always seems to shock people in tech conversations.
  - rskar 10y ago
    DOS isn't based on Xenix at all. It's a clone of CP/M, and CP/M was its own thing for 8-bit CPUs (and later 16-bit).
    - dec0dedab0de 10y ago
      Whoops, Thank you for that. I think I misinterpreted this thread when it was new, and then never questioned it any further. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7466952 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7466952
tekni5 10y ago
I disagree, I applaud the effort even if in the current state few will use it. Imagine a few decades from now, Windows has either transformed so much that it can no longer run certain things or it entirely disappears as a platform. Something like ReactOS could become very useful to running legacy stuff or perhaps the code can be recycled for emulation/vm and legally offered for free. It can also be used on older hardware to bring back Windows applications/gaming, while also keeping it up to date.
- ecnahc515 10y ago
  Windows is pretty focused on backwards compatibility. A large portion of their market comes from the fact that the latest version of Windows can still run 10-20 year old programs written for Windows 98, XP, etc.
  - wtallis 10y ago
    But if you go a little further back, open source has the advantage: It's now easier to run 16-bit Windows programs under Wine on Linux or OS X than it is to run them on a modern Windows machine, and Microsoft has completely ceded the vintage gaming audience to DOSBox.
  - tekni5 10y ago
    This is only true for certain programs. I've already run into many issues trying to run older software from Windows 98/XP days. For example certain older tools for Quake1 modding don't work properly on anything past Windows XP. Even something like Photoshop CS2 has certain bugs running under Windows 7.
    - Zardoz84 10y ago
      Don't forget old games. There many that simply don't work on Windoss 7/8/10 without many patchs.
- theamk 10y ago
  Surely you would want to support Wine and not ReactOS? The only advantage of ReactOS over WINE is that ReactOS has Windows 2003 compatible kernel. This means native Windows drivers, and faster emulation of some features. However, a few decades from now, there will be no devices left which have Windows 2003 drivers. And hopefully CPUs will become faster, so Wine overhead will be negligible. And I doubt all the new devices will have ReactOS drivers. Rather than keep going on ReactOS, I would much more prefer people making wine better.
jug 10y ago
I for one think there's a _lack_ of serious OS efforts, optimized for various scenarios. I still miss the days of Amiga OS and its multimedia oriented design that gave it a huge lead in these areas on many contemporary competitors. The refreshing BeOS appeared but was unfortunately abandoned and while Haiku is interesting, I wish it had better traction and more attention from the public. :) These days it's so much about only Windows, macOS, and Linux. And two of those are closed systems. Mobile devices are eating up more use cases by the day too, so I guess the golden era of desktop operating sytems are long passed. However, this sure makes me more sad than ReactOS being a thing!

Your comment is the saddest thing.

nxc18 10y ago

Operating systems are cool. Just about every popular general purpose operating system is some variation on UNIX. That is sad, just like it would be sad if JavaScript, TypeScript and Coffescript were the only popular programming languages. The only difference in scenarios is that the OS is much more significant and critical than the programming language. Windows is fundamentally different from Linux and UNIX. ReactOS is a clean room reimplementation of that, bringing NT's many excellent ideas to the open source community. That is a good thing, even if you never get to use it. Don't forget that, just like in every other part of life, different != bad.

theamk 10y ago
Agree, NT has many excellent ideas. But re-implementing it today seems silly. Are you going to have messages with take two integers only, then stick two 16-bit fields into second one? Look at these articles, do you think anyone should be implementing API like this in 21st century: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20070710-00/?p=26083 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20070710-00/?p=... https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120913-00/?p=6613 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120913-00/?p=... I am all for variety. Hurd, L4 -- these are fundamentally different from Unix and very interesting. ReactOS? well if you enjoy debugging windows kernel drivers without source code...
- chris_wot 10y ago
  That's the Win32 executive subsystem, which is only a small (albeit important) part of Windows NT. The ReactOS project aims to get binary driver compatibility with Windows, amongst other things. And yes, lots of people enjoy reverse engineering things like drivers.
dec0dedab0de 10y ago
Just about every popular general purpose operating system is some variation on UNIX. Including Windows 9x which is based on DOS which is based on Xenix which is based on Unix. I didn't learn this until a few years ago, and it always seems to shock people in tech conversations.
- rskar 10y ago
  DOS isn't based on Xenix at all. It's a clone of CP/M, and CP/M was its own thing for 8-bit CPUs (and later 16-bit).
  - dec0dedab0de 10y ago
    Whoops, Thank you for that. I think I misinterpreted this thread when it was new, and then never questioned it any further. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7466952 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7466952

tekni5 10y ago

I disagree, I applaud the effort even if in the current state few will use it. Imagine a few decades from now, Windows has either transformed so much that it can no longer run certain things or it entirely disappears as a platform. Something like ReactOS could become very useful to running legacy stuff or perhaps the code can be recycled for emulation/vm and legally offered for free. It can also be used on older hardware to bring back Windows applications/gaming, while also keeping it up to date.

ecnahc515 10y ago
Windows is pretty focused on backwards compatibility. A large portion of their market comes from the fact that the latest version of Windows can still run 10-20 year old programs written for Windows 98, XP, etc.
- wtallis 10y ago
  But if you go a little further back, open source has the advantage: It's now easier to run 16-bit Windows programs under Wine on Linux or OS X than it is to run them on a modern Windows machine, and Microsoft has completely ceded the vintage gaming audience to DOSBox.
- tekni5 10y ago
  This is only true for certain programs. I've already run into many issues trying to run older software from Windows 98/XP days. For example certain older tools for Quake1 modding don't work properly on anything past Windows XP. Even something like Photoshop CS2 has certain bugs running under Windows 7.
  - Zardoz84 10y ago
    Don't forget old games. There many that simply don't work on Windoss 7/8/10 without many patchs.
theamk 10y ago
Surely you would want to support Wine and not ReactOS? The only advantage of ReactOS over WINE is that ReactOS has Windows 2003 compatible kernel. This means native Windows drivers, and faster emulation of some features. However, a few decades from now, there will be no devices left which have Windows 2003 drivers. And hopefully CPUs will become faster, so Wine overhead will be negligible. And I doubt all the new devices will have ReactOS drivers. Rather than keep going on ReactOS, I would much more prefer people making wine better.

jug 10y ago

I for one think there's a _lack_ of serious OS efforts, optimized for various scenarios. I still miss the days of Amiga OS and its multimedia oriented design that gave it a huge lead in these areas on many contemporary competitors. The refreshing BeOS appeared but was unfortunately abandoned and while Haiku is interesting, I wish it had better traction and more attention from the public. :) These days it's so much about only Windows, macOS, and Linux. And two of those are closed systems. Mobile devices are eating up more use cases by the day too, so I guess the golden era of desktop operating sytems are long passed. However, this sure makes me more sad than ReactOS being a thing!