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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 Java
by 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 agoAgree, 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 agoThat'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 agoJust 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 agoDOS 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 agoWhoops, 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