6 ms·

It is getting much better with each release. I'm seeing it each time more as a good replacement for the office machines that need to run the legacy software. P

It is getting much better with each release. I'm seeing it each time more as a good replacement for the office machines that need to run the legacy software. Plus, with this Windows exists no state surveillance involved nor costs with licenses, perfect for VM deployment.

dingdingdang 9y ago
My department will be adopting ReactOS as soon as is possible - the amount of issues being purposely built into newer versions* of Windows is borderline hilarious. If we could pay for using LTSB installations we would do so but for a smaller charity this is near impossible. *When car manufacturers reach peak saturation with a given model they expand/consolidate their position by improving their product, NOT by making the consumer buying their car the product...!
- yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
  What's the security situation? Is it safe to have ReactOS networked?
  - t90fan 9y ago
    Well, on account there isnt really a working AD or SMB implementation, little printing support, and most NICs arent supported (also: no wireless at all), then I would say there is little attack surface :)
    - Koshkin 9y ago
      > little attack surface Well, PCs had been suffering from viruses long before they got network adapters...
      - oneweekwonder 9y ago
        Yip, I remember a virus that hi-jack your bios to draw a flag of some country before every boot; this was in 1998/dos years. You were "sharing" games with your friend they downloaded from geocities... good times. To think a intel ME like vulnerability was already possible back then(if not more) for your bios.
  - shawnz 9y ago
    Right now, it doesn't even have multiuser support.
mysterydip 9y ago
I love ReactOS and what they're trying to accomplish. Every release keeps getting better. Weirdly though, it seems like every release is just one release away from me being able to fully switch to it. One thing I wish would get fixed (though I understand why it hasn't been yet) is the USB boot option. Most of the physical devices I want to run it on lack a CD drive.
- listic 9y ago
  What is so special and complicated in USB booting that needs special support?
  - mysterydip 9y ago
    The info on http://www.reactos.org/wiki/LiveUSB http://www.reactos.org/wiki/LiveUSB says "With current versions of ReactOS, USB support is not advanced enough to successfully boot, and ReactOS will crash when it begins loading system USB drivers." Bug here for example: https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-7826 https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-7826
  - vgal 9y ago
    Need support for booting from the USB flash drive in the drivers. http://vgal.ru.com/ http://vgal.ru.com/
- sp332 9y ago
  I think you can use Rufus to boot using the ISO file on a USB drive. I haven't been able to test it, but it says it supports ReactOS. http://rufus.akeo.ie/ http://rufus.akeo.ie/
  - boznz 9y ago
    No problem creating the ISO boot disk but did not boot on my burner 2014 intel i3 motherboard :-( Still I'm glad someones working on this project and will keep hoping the USB support gets fixed in the future
badsectoracula 9y ago
I've used ReactOS at the past to automatically create Win32 builds for software (the real hardware ran Linux, ReactOS was booted in a VM), the command-line stuff tend to work fine. The main problem is that there are still tons of issues with the GUI side, including glaring things like region clipping (you can see obscured windows sometimes being drawn above other windows or areas in some windows not being drawn at all) and a single window being able to hang the entire UI (seems all window message handling is synchronized). Older software tends to work ok (i ran Borland C++ Builder on it without major issues, beyond the GUI glitches i mentioned), but not perfect. Also old software sometimes tends to include 16bit components that do not work yet with ReactOS. The file manager was also rewritten at some point and it seems to have issues (e.g. you need to manually refresh the desktop/a folder to see changes, drag-drop doesn't always work, etc). However it is much better than 1-2 releases ago, which shows that it gets a lot of development. Command-line stuff seem to work perfect (although the current shell is quite primitive) though so, if nothing else it can be used for automated tasks. IMO they should try to pay a bit more attention to getting the basics of the GUI side working since this will attract more developers who are interested in helping with the higher levels (as higher as working with stuff like user32.dll etc can be anyway) but don't want to mess with the low level stuff (graphics, etc). I think ReactOS is still at a point before the "snowball effect" with its developer popularity.
- harrygeez 9y ago
  to be fair even on Windows 10 you still have refresh manually sometimes
- oneweekwonder 9y ago
  > i ran Borland C++ Builder on it without major issues, beyond the GUI glitches i mentioned To whom does the Borland C++ builder belong. Because I wonder if there will open a market to get old c++/pascal code running in ReactOS? There is projects like lazarus and free pascal. But if you can keep your legacy win32 stuff in a self contained ReacOS vm... This will solve the enterprise problem of keeping legacy applications contained without win related licencing worries. Also your long term support looks more promising with ReactOS compared to Win XP; But microsoft will still drag the bone along for a little longer if not indefinitely at a enterprise price, ofcourse.

dingdingdang 9y ago

My department will be adopting ReactOS as soon as is possible - the amount of issues being purposely built into newer versions* of Windows is borderline hilarious. If we could pay for using LTSB installations we would do so but for a smaller charity this is near impossible. *When car manufacturers reach peak saturation with a given model they expand/consolidate their position by improving their product, NOT by making the consumer buying their car the product...!

yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
What's the security situation? Is it safe to have ReactOS networked?
- t90fan 9y ago
  Well, on account there isnt really a working AD or SMB implementation, little printing support, and most NICs arent supported (also: no wireless at all), then I would say there is little attack surface :)
  - Koshkin 9y ago
    > little attack surface Well, PCs had been suffering from viruses long before they got network adapters...
    - oneweekwonder 9y ago
      Yip, I remember a virus that hi-jack your bios to draw a flag of some country before every boot; this was in 1998/dos years. You were "sharing" games with your friend they downloaded from geocities... good times. To think a intel ME like vulnerability was already possible back then(if not more) for your bios.
- shawnz 9y ago
  Right now, it doesn't even have multiuser support.

mysterydip 9y ago

I love ReactOS and what they're trying to accomplish. Every release keeps getting better. Weirdly though, it seems like every release is just one release away from me being able to fully switch to it. One thing I wish would get fixed (though I understand why it hasn't been yet) is the USB boot option. Most of the physical devices I want to run it on lack a CD drive.

listic 9y ago
What is so special and complicated in USB booting that needs special support?
- mysterydip 9y ago
  The info on http://www.reactos.org/wiki/LiveUSB http://www.reactos.org/wiki/LiveUSB says "With current versions of ReactOS, USB support is not advanced enough to successfully boot, and ReactOS will crash when it begins loading system USB drivers." Bug here for example: https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-7826 https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-7826
- vgal 9y ago
  Need support for booting from the USB flash drive in the drivers. http://vgal.ru.com/ http://vgal.ru.com/
sp332 9y ago
I think you can use Rufus to boot using the ISO file on a USB drive. I haven't been able to test it, but it says it supports ReactOS. http://rufus.akeo.ie/ http://rufus.akeo.ie/
- boznz 9y ago
  No problem creating the ISO boot disk but did not boot on my burner 2014 intel i3 motherboard :-( Still I'm glad someones working on this project and will keep hoping the USB support gets fixed in the future

badsectoracula 9y ago

I've used ReactOS at the past to automatically create Win32 builds for software (the real hardware ran Linux, ReactOS was booted in a VM), the command-line stuff tend to work fine. The main problem is that there are still tons of issues with the GUI side, including glaring things like region clipping (you can see obscured windows sometimes being drawn above other windows or areas in some windows not being drawn at all) and a single window being able to hang the entire UI (seems all window message handling is synchronized). Older software tends to work ok (i ran Borland C++ Builder on it without major issues, beyond the GUI glitches i mentioned), but not perfect. Also old software sometimes tends to include 16bit components that do not work yet with ReactOS. The file manager was also rewritten at some point and it seems to have issues (e.g. you need to manually refresh the desktop/a folder to see changes, drag-drop doesn't always work, etc). However it is much better than 1-2 releases ago, which shows that it gets a lot of development. Command-line stuff seem to work perfect (although the current shell is quite primitive) though so, if nothing else it can be used for automated tasks. IMO they should try to pay a bit more attention to getting the basics of the GUI side working since this will attract more developers who are interested in helping with the higher levels (as higher as working with stuff like user32.dll etc can be anyway) but don't want to mess with the low level stuff (graphics, etc). I think ReactOS is still at a point before the "snowball effect" with its developer popularity.

harrygeez 9y ago
to be fair even on Windows 10 you still have refresh manually sometimes
oneweekwonder 9y ago
> i ran Borland C++ Builder on it without major issues, beyond the GUI glitches i mentioned To whom does the Borland C++ builder belong. Because I wonder if there will open a market to get old c++/pascal code running in ReactOS? There is projects like lazarus and free pascal. But if you can keep your legacy win32 stuff in a self contained ReacOS vm... This will solve the enterprise problem of keeping legacy applications contained without win related licencing worries. Also your long term support looks more promising with ReactOS compared to Win XP; But microsoft will still drag the bone along for a little longer if not indefinitely at a enterprise price, ofcourse.