6 ms·

I can see that this is an awesome achievement but why would people, not involved in the project, choose to use it instead of other operating systems such as win

I can see that this is an awesome achievement but why would people, not involved in the project, choose to use it instead of other operating systems such as windows itself?

vbezhenar 9y ago
One reason would be price. Another reason would be software compatibility. Many people praise Windows backwards compatibility, but that's not the case in my experience, a lot of poorly written software breaks with new Windows versions, so people forced to stay with XP. I'm not sure if ReactOS would have better compatibility, but it's a chance. Also some people just want to use free software for their own reasons.
gbajson 9y ago
I keep trying to use each version of ReactOS in order to run the Windows XP programs, I still need some of them. In 2017 I can't even buy Windows XP in Microsoft Store.
- kinleyd 9y ago
  Do Win XP programs run yet?
  - barking 9y ago
    They do on WINE on ubuntu anyway
    - kinleyd 9y ago
      Yes, that's right. I was wondering if they worked on ReactOS yet.
- matthew349hall 9y ago
  ...for good reason? Technologies from XP are by now insecure and obsolete. Why would Microsoft sell XP still? Does Ford still sell 1998 F150's at their dealerships?
  - xenophonf 9y ago
    It's a fairly straightforward cost-benefit analysis. Some of us rely on software that would otherwise be too difficult or expensive to replace, software that only runs on Windows XP for a variety of reasons. In my case it's a device driver that interacts with a very expensive flow cytometer. We've taken other precautions in order to protect the computer, and we're reasonably confident we can operate it safely. The same goes for many, many other Windows XP or Windows XP Embedded installations, where it's basically treated like firmware and carefully walled off from the outside.
    - flai 9y ago
      Does "VM it" work? I mean, there is PCI and USB-passthrough in qemu, so this might be an option, especially since VMs are easy to sandbox (easier than physical machines where someone might simply plug a cable in so he can watch YouTube, for example).
      - xenophonf 9y ago
        Mitigations only make sense in a cost-benefit analysis when there's a corresponding threat. Why would someone bother with watching YouTube on a junky old PC in a corner of the lab? It doesn't even have an audio card, let alone a modern web browser. Besides, it's on an isolated VLAN and monitored (and backed up) like a server, so anyone messing with its network connection will cause the equivalent "server down" alert in our NOC, not that it will do them much good: This particular lab is in a pretty remote location where network bandwidth is at a premium, so we block YouTube campus-wide. Frankly, I'm only really worried about malware somehow sneaking aboard the thing, which is why it's on-network in the first place. I don't want people plugging flash drives into it. And fortunately, there are still antivirus products that support Windows XP, which keeps the riff-raff out.
icebraining 9y ago
What are the differences between Windows and ReactOS? There are mainly two. Firstly ReactOS is open source. Secondly ReactOS is Free. Also Windows (especially the newer versions) are known to monitor all your activity by default. So if you're concerned about your privacy or just don't want to share any personal info, we promise (and you can check our source code) that we don't track any of your data.
- snowpanda 9y ago
  And it could be used for legacy software from what I've read.
- skrowl 9y ago
  "Monitor all your activity by default" is serious FUD here. There is some telemetry data collected and phoned home, but it's not like they're monitoring what websites you go to, what you write in your Word docs, etc.
  - dx034 9y ago
    Not contents but behaviour. They do monitor if you use Chrome or IE, if you use Excel and for how long, etc. This alone is powerful enough.
  - PrimHelios 9y ago
    Last time I checked, Edge still sent all your keystrokes to Microsoft in plaintext and over HTTP (not HTTPS). So yeah, they are (at least were) monitoring not only what sites you went to, but also what you typed into them.
    - skrowl 9y ago
      Can you provide a source / proof of that statement?
    - viraptor 9y ago
      Went looking for it just in case it's true and... nothing. There's a case of predictive text system in windows 10 which can query for suggestions (there's an option to disable it), but no keylogger either in edge or windows that I can find. And the predictive text didn't use HTTP.
mrighele 9y ago
There are a number of old software that won't work on modern versions of Windows and old versions are no longer maintained. Even "offline" use, e.g. in VirtualBox with no network access can be problematic; for example my XP installer comes with SP2, but it is no longer possible to download SP3 from Microsoft. Having said that, ReactOS still needs quite a bit of work to cover that niche, in my opinion.
- xenophonf 9y ago
  You can still get SP3 for Windows XP, but you have to download it directly from the Windows Update catalog: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB936929 https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB936...
  - mrighele 9y ago
    Thanks a lot ! When I did a search, all the links would point to the old (deleted) pages.
matthew349hall 9y ago
Here we go! These folks are waisting thousands of hours making something that already exists.
- welly 9y ago
  You appear to be far too bothered what other people are doing with their own time. If they're not doing anything illegal or immoral, I fail to see the problem you have with this.
- Koshkin 9y ago
  Well, I guess, the same could be said about FreeBSD vs. Linux (or, is it the other way around?)
jpalomaki 9y ago
Old Windows versions are not available from Microsoft (or at least not without some expensive special contracts). I see the main use case for ReactOS is running legacy software for which upgrades are not available or are not otherwise feasible.
Endy 9y ago
I grew up with DOS and Windows, I have no interest whatsoever in moving to Linux; in fact I have an active disinterest in doing so, if for no other reason than the fact that all my software is for Windows. ReactOS is my main upgrade option, because I don't want to be tied into all of the Win10 nonsense. On top of that, I have several old (XP-era) laptops which still boot, still can play my older games and get on the Internet, etc. They're not really capable of running even Win7. ReactOS allows me to run a newer OS on those old IBM battleaxes.
- barking 9y ago
  Fair enough, I can appreciate that wanting to be able to continue older software a valid reason. Just to add that I've had good success running a vb6 application on WINE on Ubuntu.
- wiz21c 9y ago
  Damn! Are you saying that you won't buy a new PC, that is, condemning all the effort of Microsoft to sustain economical growth and, therefore, kill employment. I can't believe it, that is so against the current economical paradigm. :-)

I can see that this is an awesome achievement but why would people, not involved in the project, choose to use it instead of other operating systems such as windows itself?

vbezhenar 9y ago

One reason would be price. Another reason would be software compatibility. Many people praise Windows backwards compatibility, but that's not the case in my experience, a lot of poorly written software breaks with new Windows versions, so people forced to stay with XP. I'm not sure if ReactOS would have better compatibility, but it's a chance. Also some people just want to use free software for their own reasons.

gbajson 9y ago

I keep trying to use each version of ReactOS in order to run the Windows XP programs, I still need some of them. In 2017 I can't even buy Windows XP in Microsoft Store.

kinleyd 9y ago
Do Win XP programs run yet?
- barking 9y ago
  They do on WINE on ubuntu anyway
  - kinleyd 9y ago
    Yes, that's right. I was wondering if they worked on ReactOS yet.
matthew349hall 9y ago
...for good reason? Technologies from XP are by now insecure and obsolete. Why would Microsoft sell XP still? Does Ford still sell 1998 F150's at their dealerships?
- xenophonf 9y ago
  It's a fairly straightforward cost-benefit analysis. Some of us rely on software that would otherwise be too difficult or expensive to replace, software that only runs on Windows XP for a variety of reasons. In my case it's a device driver that interacts with a very expensive flow cytometer. We've taken other precautions in order to protect the computer, and we're reasonably confident we can operate it safely. The same goes for many, many other Windows XP or Windows XP Embedded installations, where it's basically treated like firmware and carefully walled off from the outside.
  - flai 9y ago
    Does "VM it" work? I mean, there is PCI and USB-passthrough in qemu, so this might be an option, especially since VMs are easy to sandbox (easier than physical machines where someone might simply plug a cable in so he can watch YouTube, for example).
    - xenophonf 9y ago
      Mitigations only make sense in a cost-benefit analysis when there's a corresponding threat. Why would someone bother with watching YouTube on a junky old PC in a corner of the lab? It doesn't even have an audio card, let alone a modern web browser. Besides, it's on an isolated VLAN and monitored (and backed up) like a server, so anyone messing with its network connection will cause the equivalent "server down" alert in our NOC, not that it will do them much good: This particular lab is in a pretty remote location where network bandwidth is at a premium, so we block YouTube campus-wide. Frankly, I'm only really worried about malware somehow sneaking aboard the thing, which is why it's on-network in the first place. I don't want people plugging flash drives into it. And fortunately, there are still antivirus products that support Windows XP, which keeps the riff-raff out.

icebraining 9y ago

What are the differences between Windows and ReactOS? There are mainly two. Firstly ReactOS is open source. Secondly ReactOS is Free. Also Windows (especially the newer versions) are known to monitor all your activity by default. So if you're concerned about your privacy or just don't want to share any personal info, we promise (and you can check our source code) that we don't track any of your data.

snowpanda 9y ago
And it could be used for legacy software from what I've read.
skrowl 9y ago
"Monitor all your activity by default" is serious FUD here. There is some telemetry data collected and phoned home, but it's not like they're monitoring what websites you go to, what you write in your Word docs, etc.
- dx034 9y ago
  Not contents but behaviour. They do monitor if you use Chrome or IE, if you use Excel and for how long, etc. This alone is powerful enough.
- PrimHelios 9y ago
  Last time I checked, Edge still sent all your keystrokes to Microsoft in plaintext and over HTTP (not HTTPS). So yeah, they are (at least were) monitoring not only what sites you went to, but also what you typed into them.
  - skrowl 9y ago
    Can you provide a source / proof of that statement?
  - viraptor 9y ago
    Went looking for it just in case it's true and... nothing. There's a case of predictive text system in windows 10 which can query for suggestions (there's an option to disable it), but no keylogger either in edge or windows that I can find. And the predictive text didn't use HTTP.

mrighele 9y ago

There are a number of old software that won't work on modern versions of Windows and old versions are no longer maintained. Even "offline" use, e.g. in VirtualBox with no network access can be problematic; for example my XP installer comes with SP2, but it is no longer possible to download SP3 from Microsoft. Having said that, ReactOS still needs quite a bit of work to cover that niche, in my opinion.

xenophonf 9y ago
You can still get SP3 for Windows XP, but you have to download it directly from the Windows Update catalog: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB936929 https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB936...
- mrighele 9y ago
  Thanks a lot ! When I did a search, all the links would point to the old (deleted) pages.

matthew349hall 9y ago

Here we go! These folks are waisting thousands of hours making something that already exists.

welly 9y ago
You appear to be far too bothered what other people are doing with their own time. If they're not doing anything illegal or immoral, I fail to see the problem you have with this.
Koshkin 9y ago
Well, I guess, the same could be said about FreeBSD vs. Linux (or, is it the other way around?)

jpalomaki 9y ago

Old Windows versions are not available from Microsoft (or at least not without some expensive special contracts). I see the main use case for ReactOS is running legacy software for which upgrades are not available or are not otherwise feasible.

Endy 9y ago

I grew up with DOS and Windows, I have no interest whatsoever in moving to Linux; in fact I have an active disinterest in doing so, if for no other reason than the fact that all my software is for Windows. ReactOS is my main upgrade option, because I don't want to be tied into all of the Win10 nonsense. On top of that, I have several old (XP-era) laptops which still boot, still can play my older games and get on the Internet, etc. They're not really capable of running even Win7. ReactOS allows me to run a newer OS on those old IBM battleaxes.

barking 9y ago
Fair enough, I can appreciate that wanting to be able to continue older software a valid reason. Just to add that I've had good success running a vb6 application on WINE on Ubuntu.
wiz21c 9y ago
Damn! Are you saying that you won't buy a new PC, that is, condemning all the effort of Microsoft to sustain economical growth and, therefore, kill employment. I can't believe it, that is so against the current economical paradigm. :-)