9 ms·

ReactOS 0.4.7 released

229 points by jeditobe 9y ago

zaarn 9y ago
It's great to hear that this project is still going on, ReactOS is quite a milestone in terms of dedication and compatibility. I should try it in a VM again, maybe I can get my old VB6 IDE running again...
- oneweekwonder 9y ago
  > maybe I can get my old VB6 IDE running again... Why? Just run delphi 7 so that you at least will have sane exception handling ;) But on a more serious note I wonder how the lazarus-ide will do on ReactOS.
  - zaarn 9y ago
    Mostly because VB6 is the IDE I learned programming with and I think I heavily used it until '06, at which point I switched to C# and .NET and much other fun. Mostly for Nostalgia...
    - ianai 9y ago
      That’s where I learned programming as well. Around that time someone hooked me up with a VB 1.0 IDE. It ran on windows 3,iirc. Or was it straight DOS? Talk about blast from the past.
      - mattl 9y ago
        There was a VB 1.0 for DOS, but also a 1.0 for Windows released earlier I believe. VB for DOS was a bit of a dog, IIRC.
    - scoggs 9y ago
      You bringing up VB6 made me smile. Anything VB makes me nostalgic as well. During Thanksgiving I talked to my Uncle who gave my family our first computer and also asked him if he remembered giving me his old copy of VB 3.0 to install. We couldn't remember if it was 20-something or 30-something 3.5" floppy disks but I remember feeling really cool being the only person out of my programmer buddies who had a legit VB 3.0 install.
- rnd0 9y ago
  On my desktop, it seems to work pretty well in Virtualbox -at least until I tried to install Office 2010 on it. It doesn't seem to deal well with the audio and network drivers, though. I had no luck installing visual studio 6 in my vm. My old copy of borland 5 seems to be installing just fine, though. Edit: I may have spoken too soon; I had to run bcw.exe manually, and got a message about 16 bit WoW not being supported.
- SirFatty 9y ago
  Or just install XP in a VM, then VB6 will work for sure.
- CJKerr 9y ago
  The VB6 IDE is distressingly easy to get running on modern versions of Windows - this is fortunate, since we still need to support it, but upsetting, since it diminishes the incentive for killing it off.
  - meredydd 9y ago
    The resistance to "killing off" VB6 is in large part based on there being nothing as good to replace it. Unless you're willing to pay thousands for a Delphi licence, your only options are: 1. Modern .NET for desktop apps, whose many semi-obsolete UI frameworks make Java's UI tools look simple 2. Learning HTML/JS/React/Redux/CSS/Bootstrap/Python/Django/SQL/SQLAlchemy/Webpack... Neither is likely to appeal to someone used to how easily applications could be created in VB6 or Delphi. (I believe this so strongly I cofounded https://anvil.works https://anvil.works, which is basically VB6/Delphi for the web. That's not so much a disclaimer, I guess, as putting my money where my mouth is :-P)
    - int_19h 9y ago
      If you're trying to replace VB6, the only UI framework to consider on .NET would be WinForms, anyway. Which is obsolete, but still supported. I don't see how Delphi + VCL is any easier than C# + WinForms, especially given that the latter is a GC language.
    - SyneRyder 9y ago
      There's also Xojo, which used to be called REALbasic. It's a cross platform (Mac/Windows/Linux) IDE similar to Visual Basic, with the indie developer community of the earlier Delphi versions, and a much cheaper price point (essentially $99 per platform): https://www.xojo.com/visualbasic/ https://www.xojo.com/visualbasic/
donatj 9y ago
The incredible work that goes into ReactOS is truly awe inspiring. It gives me hope for Haiku
vorotato 9y ago
I love seeing that GPL license. Nobody can try to pull an Apple with the OS stealing valuable momentum and userbase. Whether you approve or not of such behavior, it's pretty unambiguous that it happens.
- oneweekwonder 9y ago
  > Apple with the OS stealing valuable momentum and userbase. What did they "steal" that is of value that nobody can access after the "theft"? Also their not alone because there is a `etc\hosts` file in my windows driver directory.
  - vorotato 9y ago
    Stealing momentum and userbase are not theft, but rather meant to convey a loss for the open source project despite being the ones who got the ball rolling. It was expressly permitted by the BSD license, so I'm not saying the Apple did anything wrong, but rather pointing out a opinion about a strategic misstep by the BSD license. for context https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/41109/ https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/41109/
    - magic_quotes 9y ago
      Please, Linux is the direct competitor of FreeBSD, not anything Apple-related. This is obvious GPL-vs-BSD trolling attempt and you know that.
      - vorotato 9y ago
        It's not about the users it's about the developers, and no I'm not trying to troll. I'm sorry that what I said upsets you, but I don't think I was saying anything offensive. I admit "Stealing" is a loaded word and I was using it loosely, I didn't think it would upset people because I wasn't meaning it literally.
- striking 9y ago
  Succeeding by making use of open source is not "stealing." Were Sony's developers stealing when they integrated FreeBSD into the PS4? No. They were following the licensing terms set by the FreeBSD project. Apple's XNU is actually also released as open source (for the most part; last I checked, the parts that pertained to iOS weren't exported). It's based on Mach (which wasn't licensed in an open source way! http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mach/public/FAQ/license.info http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mach/public/FAQ/license...) as well as 4.3BSD (which is BSD-licensed).
DCKing 9y ago
It's really interesting ReactOS can run both Chrome and Firefox. The latest versions of these browsers do not run on any old Windows: Chrome has required at least Windows 7 since version 50 (April 2016) and Firefox has required this since version 53 (April 2017) - although Firefox 52 ESR is still supported until May 2018. Although I don't follow ReactOS, I thought they were working on supporting older Windows (Wikipedia says they try to run on Windows Server 2003 drivers). So does this mean they are catching up so fast to newer Windows versions or are we in fact seeing (very) old browsers in these screenshots?
- mhd 9y ago
  I don't think the ReactOS people are trying to do Windows versions like Russian nesting dolls. They try to aim to fully support the older version, but while they're trying to fill all the nooks and crannies of them, quite often you'll find yourself adding some new API from a more recent version, if that's all you need to support a specific kind of application. I'd naively assume that finishing the undocumented API calls of the last century is a much more time-consuming task than adding what little came after 2003...
  - jrs95 9y ago
    Is it still targeting Windows XP though? Or is it just Windows NT more broadly now, albeit with a much older looking interface?
- SyneRyder 9y ago
  I'm not seeing the claimed browser support. The ReactOS Application Store has Firefox 45, which successfully updated to Firefox 47... but then Firefox 52 ESR crashes on start. I'll have to uninstall and go back to 47 to get Firefox to work. The Application Store has Opera 12.18 (from 2012), so I used that to try and download Chrome. Chrome tells me my computer isn't supported, but offers a download anyway. But when I try it, the installer stops after "On your marks!" so I have no idea how they took that Chrome screenshot. Opera 12.18 is running okay so far, though.
  - 9y ago
mhd 9y ago
Maybe it's time to undust those Win32 ASM skills...
codedokode 9y ago
Reactos is a great project that can help to preserve old Windows software. Also their work can be used by Wine (not a Windows emulator) developers.
- bonzini 9y ago
  It's more often the other way round; ReactOS uses Wine DLLs (in fact many Wine DLLs can be even used on Windows). However, the reverse engineering work of ReactOS developers has indeed benefited Wine too.
  - snvzz 9y ago
    They've also uncovered and fixed plenty of bugs in wine, and implemented a lot of missing functionality.
miguelrochefort 9y ago
Nothing makes me more sad than this project.
- thrownaway954 9y ago
  you're on the wrong site troll. Reddit is that way ->
- Koshkin 9y ago
  Not sure why you should feel that way. There is nothing wrong in trying to create a free clone of a popular software product. (There's also FreeDOS - a high-quality clone of MS-DOS.)
  - explainplease 9y ago
    Maybe he feels like it would be more beneficial if the work were put into WINE instead. There are lots of people who could switch to Linux if certain apps worked well under WINE. With the anti-user shenanigans Microsoft is doing in Windows now (e.g. using upstream bandwidth to seed updates, sucking up people's Internet connections, and potentially busting their data caps), this is needed now more than ever. But no one's going to replace Windows with ReactOS. For example, is ReactOS going to keep up with drivers for current hardware? Of course not. Do they regularly release security updates? No. But Linux and Linux distros already do. So improving WINE helps people actually switch off Windows to a safer, less anti-user system.
    - neuromantik8086 9y ago
      This isn't an either/or situation. The ReactOS developers collaborate heavily with the WINE developers, so many updates to ReactOS also benefit WINE and vice-versa.
      - explainplease 9y ago
        That sounds nice, but wouldn't it be better if the effort were put toward WINE alone? I just don't understand. WINE is like a necessary evil, a noble sacrifice of its developers' time to enable users to switch from Windows to a free, open platform for the applications they can't run on one natively. It's a sensible abstraction that enables something that wouldn't otherwise be possible. But why reimplement Windows, the whole OS? If the devs enjoy it, it's their time to use as they choose. But the end result would be much more beneficial for users if it were put toward WINE so users could leave the Windows platform behind.
j_s 9y ago
Not sure where the 'with Four different browsers supported' part of the headline came from -- searching for 'browser' gives no results on the page. Is this from the screenshot of Chrome / Firefox / Opera / K-Meleon? I would hope the OS can support a truckload more than four browsers! I would be interested to learn how well ancient Internet Explorer versions work.
- giancarlostoro 9y ago
  It supports software that only runs properly in older versions of Windows so its almost a XP type of OS but can run the latest of browsers at the same time. Its kind of a big deal when you think about it from that point considering modern browsers do not support XP and co anymore
- JdeBP 9y ago
  Indeed the text in the screenshot implies that it can run all browsers, not four.
- SyneRyder 9y ago
  I commented elsewhere about it, but I can't even see how they took that screenshot. Firefox 52 ESR crashes at startup for me, and Chrome refused to even install on ReactOS. Opera 12 is the only one I've got to work reliably-ish. I assume the screenshot must be old versions of the browsers.
  - jeditobe 9y ago
    Use Firefox 48 from RAPPS. If you want Chrome you need to find Chrome 49 (Chrome 50 ends support for Windows XP) and run it with --no-sandbox key
SyneRyder 9y ago
Thought I'd try the new release, and while there's plenty of glitches (eg it blue-screened after install), there's some useful things that are working. Sublime Text installed and seems to work, though the antialiasing is not very good & makes the text difficult to read. I keep testing my own Win32 Photoshop plug-ins on ReactOS, and they seem to work fine in my makeshift graphics editor. I'm having a hard time finding any glitches at all with those plug-ins now. As I mentioned elsewhere, Opera 12.18 works okay, and I'm posting this comment from ReactOS & Opera (installed via Parallels Desktop).
- tomcam 9y ago
  Wait... you have written a "makeshift" graphics editor that can already use Photoshop plugins? I would love to hear more about that!
  - SyneRyder 9y ago
    It was made with Delphi 2005, ImageEn [1] (a Delphi component for loading & saving image file formats) and the Centaurix Delphi Photoshop component. Sadly Centaurix went out of business. Their SDK was designed for writing Photoshop plugins, but it also had some functions for loading & testing Photoshop plugins, and I used those. There were a lot of bugs that I had to patch to get it working. I made it because my products are Photoshop plug-ins [2], but a lot of people were downloading them without having Photoshop. People would complain after installing that there wasn't a program to run. I thought including a bare-bones standalone graphics editor (no layers, no selections) with the Photoshop plugin download would solve that problem. Actually, it didn't move the needle at all. Seems the people most likely to buy already had Photoshop / PaintShop Pro etc anyway. But it's been useful for running tests on ReactOS, or back when I was using Wine instead of Parallels on my Mac. [1] https://www.imageen.com/ https://www.imageen.com/ [2] https://www.namesuppressed.com/ https://www.namesuppressed.com/
    - jeditobe 9y ago
      Could you make some demo videos about your program and ReactOS?
rnd0 9y ago
quote: c:\dir\ssvn update This might take a while, so please be patient. Local Revision: 76032 Online HEAD Revision: 76032 Your tree is up to date. /unquote So, can anyone confirm for me that 76032 is the reversion that they're calling 0.4.7?
- Rondom 9y ago
  As said in the article, they switched to git.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- jeditobe 9y ago
  https://github.com/reactos/reactos/ https://github.com/reactos/reactos/

229 points by jeditobe 9y ago

It's great to hear that this project is still going on, ReactOS is quite a milestone in terms of dedication and compatibility. I should try it in a VM again, maybe I can get my old VB6 IDE running again...

oneweekwonder 9y ago
> maybe I can get my old VB6 IDE running again... Why? Just run delphi 7 so that you at least will have sane exception handling ;) But on a more serious note I wonder how the lazarus-ide will do on ReactOS.
- zaarn 9y ago
  Mostly because VB6 is the IDE I learned programming with and I think I heavily used it until '06, at which point I switched to C# and .NET and much other fun. Mostly for Nostalgia...
  - ianai 9y ago
    That’s where I learned programming as well. Around that time someone hooked me up with a VB 1.0 IDE. It ran on windows 3,iirc. Or was it straight DOS? Talk about blast from the past.
    - mattl 9y ago
      There was a VB 1.0 for DOS, but also a 1.0 for Windows released earlier I believe. VB for DOS was a bit of a dog, IIRC.
  - scoggs 9y ago
    You bringing up VB6 made me smile. Anything VB makes me nostalgic as well. During Thanksgiving I talked to my Uncle who gave my family our first computer and also asked him if he remembered giving me his old copy of VB 3.0 to install. We couldn't remember if it was 20-something or 30-something 3.5" floppy disks but I remember feeling really cool being the only person out of my programmer buddies who had a legit VB 3.0 install.
rnd0 9y ago
On my desktop, it seems to work pretty well in Virtualbox -at least until I tried to install Office 2010 on it. It doesn't seem to deal well with the audio and network drivers, though. I had no luck installing visual studio 6 in my vm. My old copy of borland 5 seems to be installing just fine, though. Edit: I may have spoken too soon; I had to run bcw.exe manually, and got a message about 16 bit WoW not being supported.
SirFatty 9y ago
Or just install XP in a VM, then VB6 will work for sure.
CJKerr 9y ago
The VB6 IDE is distressingly easy to get running on modern versions of Windows - this is fortunate, since we still need to support it, but upsetting, since it diminishes the incentive for killing it off.
- meredydd 9y ago
  The resistance to "killing off" VB6 is in large part based on there being nothing as good to replace it. Unless you're willing to pay thousands for a Delphi licence, your only options are: 1. Modern .NET for desktop apps, whose many semi-obsolete UI frameworks make Java's UI tools look simple 2. Learning HTML/JS/React/Redux/CSS/Bootstrap/Python/Django/SQL/SQLAlchemy/Webpack... Neither is likely to appeal to someone used to how easily applications could be created in VB6 or Delphi. (I believe this so strongly I cofounded https://anvil.works https://anvil.works, which is basically VB6/Delphi for the web. That's not so much a disclaimer, I guess, as putting my money where my mouth is :-P)
  - int_19h 9y ago
    If you're trying to replace VB6, the only UI framework to consider on .NET would be WinForms, anyway. Which is obsolete, but still supported. I don't see how Delphi + VCL is any easier than C# + WinForms, especially given that the latter is a GC language.
  - SyneRyder 9y ago
    There's also Xojo, which used to be called REALbasic. It's a cross platform (Mac/Windows/Linux) IDE similar to Visual Basic, with the indie developer community of the earlier Delphi versions, and a much cheaper price point (essentially $99 per platform): https://www.xojo.com/visualbasic/ https://www.xojo.com/visualbasic/

donatj 9y ago

The incredible work that goes into ReactOS is truly awe inspiring. It gives me hope for Haiku

vorotato 9y ago

I love seeing that GPL license. Nobody can try to pull an Apple with the OS stealing valuable momentum and userbase. Whether you approve or not of such behavior, it's pretty unambiguous that it happens.

oneweekwonder 9y ago
> Apple with the OS stealing valuable momentum and userbase. What did they "steal" that is of value that nobody can access after the "theft"? Also their not alone because there is a `etc\hosts` file in my windows driver directory.
- vorotato 9y ago
  Stealing momentum and userbase are not theft, but rather meant to convey a loss for the open source project despite being the ones who got the ball rolling. It was expressly permitted by the BSD license, so I'm not saying the Apple did anything wrong, but rather pointing out a opinion about a strategic misstep by the BSD license. for context https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/41109/ https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/41109/
  - magic_quotes 9y ago
    Please, Linux is the direct competitor of FreeBSD, not anything Apple-related. This is obvious GPL-vs-BSD trolling attempt and you know that.
    - vorotato 9y ago
      It's not about the users it's about the developers, and no I'm not trying to troll. I'm sorry that what I said upsets you, but I don't think I was saying anything offensive. I admit "Stealing" is a loaded word and I was using it loosely, I didn't think it would upset people because I wasn't meaning it literally.
striking 9y ago
Succeeding by making use of open source is not "stealing." Were Sony's developers stealing when they integrated FreeBSD into the PS4? No. They were following the licensing terms set by the FreeBSD project. Apple's XNU is actually also released as open source (for the most part; last I checked, the parts that pertained to iOS weren't exported). It's based on Mach (which wasn't licensed in an open source way! http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mach/public/FAQ/license.info http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/mach/public/FAQ/license...) as well as 4.3BSD (which is BSD-licensed).

DCKing 9y ago

It's really interesting ReactOS can run both Chrome and Firefox. The latest versions of these browsers do not run on any old Windows: Chrome has required at least Windows 7 since version 50 (April 2016) and Firefox has required this since version 53 (April 2017) - although Firefox 52 ESR is still supported until May 2018. Although I don't follow ReactOS, I thought they were working on supporting older Windows (Wikipedia says they try to run on Windows Server 2003 drivers). So does this mean they are catching up so fast to newer Windows versions or are we in fact seeing (very) old browsers in these screenshots?

mhd 9y ago
I don't think the ReactOS people are trying to do Windows versions like Russian nesting dolls. They try to aim to fully support the older version, but while they're trying to fill all the nooks and crannies of them, quite often you'll find yourself adding some new API from a more recent version, if that's all you need to support a specific kind of application. I'd naively assume that finishing the undocumented API calls of the last century is a much more time-consuming task than adding what little came after 2003...
- jrs95 9y ago
  Is it still targeting Windows XP though? Or is it just Windows NT more broadly now, albeit with a much older looking interface?
SyneRyder 9y ago
I'm not seeing the claimed browser support. The ReactOS Application Store has Firefox 45, which successfully updated to Firefox 47... but then Firefox 52 ESR crashes on start. I'll have to uninstall and go back to 47 to get Firefox to work. The Application Store has Opera 12.18 (from 2012), so I used that to try and download Chrome. Chrome tells me my computer isn't supported, but offers a download anyway. But when I try it, the installer stops after "On your marks!" so I have no idea how they took that Chrome screenshot. Opera 12.18 is running okay so far, though.
- 9y ago

mhd 9y ago

Maybe it's time to undust those Win32 ASM skills...

codedokode 9y ago

Reactos is a great project that can help to preserve old Windows software. Also their work can be used by Wine (not a Windows emulator) developers.

bonzini 9y ago
It's more often the other way round; ReactOS uses Wine DLLs (in fact many Wine DLLs can be even used on Windows). However, the reverse engineering work of ReactOS developers has indeed benefited Wine too.
- snvzz 9y ago
  They've also uncovered and fixed plenty of bugs in wine, and implemented a lot of missing functionality.

miguelrochefort 9y ago

Nothing makes me more sad than this project.

thrownaway954 9y ago
you're on the wrong site troll. Reddit is that way ->
Koshkin 9y ago
Not sure why you should feel that way. There is nothing wrong in trying to create a free clone of a popular software product. (There's also FreeDOS - a high-quality clone of MS-DOS.)
- explainplease 9y ago
  Maybe he feels like it would be more beneficial if the work were put into WINE instead. There are lots of people who could switch to Linux if certain apps worked well under WINE. With the anti-user shenanigans Microsoft is doing in Windows now (e.g. using upstream bandwidth to seed updates, sucking up people's Internet connections, and potentially busting their data caps), this is needed now more than ever. But no one's going to replace Windows with ReactOS. For example, is ReactOS going to keep up with drivers for current hardware? Of course not. Do they regularly release security updates? No. But Linux and Linux distros already do. So improving WINE helps people actually switch off Windows to a safer, less anti-user system.
  - neuromantik8086 9y ago
    This isn't an either/or situation. The ReactOS developers collaborate heavily with the WINE developers, so many updates to ReactOS also benefit WINE and vice-versa.
    - explainplease 9y ago
      That sounds nice, but wouldn't it be better if the effort were put toward WINE alone? I just don't understand. WINE is like a necessary evil, a noble sacrifice of its developers' time to enable users to switch from Windows to a free, open platform for the applications they can't run on one natively. It's a sensible abstraction that enables something that wouldn't otherwise be possible. But why reimplement Windows, the whole OS? If the devs enjoy it, it's their time to use as they choose. But the end result would be much more beneficial for users if it were put toward WINE so users could leave the Windows platform behind.

j_s 9y ago

Not sure where the 'with Four different browsers supported' part of the headline came from -- searching for 'browser' gives no results on the page. Is this from the screenshot of Chrome / Firefox / Opera / K-Meleon? I would hope the OS can support a truckload more than four browsers! I would be interested to learn how well ancient Internet Explorer versions work.

giancarlostoro 9y ago
It supports software that only runs properly in older versions of Windows so its almost a XP type of OS but can run the latest of browsers at the same time. Its kind of a big deal when you think about it from that point considering modern browsers do not support XP and co anymore
JdeBP 9y ago
Indeed the text in the screenshot implies that it can run all browsers, not four.
SyneRyder 9y ago
I commented elsewhere about it, but I can't even see how they took that screenshot. Firefox 52 ESR crashes at startup for me, and Chrome refused to even install on ReactOS. Opera 12 is the only one I've got to work reliably-ish. I assume the screenshot must be old versions of the browsers.
- jeditobe 9y ago
  Use Firefox 48 from RAPPS. If you want Chrome you need to find Chrome 49 (Chrome 50 ends support for Windows XP) and run it with --no-sandbox key

SyneRyder 9y ago

Thought I'd try the new release, and while there's plenty of glitches (eg it blue-screened after install), there's some useful things that are working. Sublime Text installed and seems to work, though the antialiasing is not very good & makes the text difficult to read. I keep testing my own Win32 Photoshop plug-ins on ReactOS, and they seem to work fine in my makeshift graphics editor. I'm having a hard time finding any glitches at all with those plug-ins now. As I mentioned elsewhere, Opera 12.18 works okay, and I'm posting this comment from ReactOS & Opera (installed via Parallels Desktop).

tomcam 9y ago
Wait... you have written a "makeshift" graphics editor that can already use Photoshop plugins? I would love to hear more about that!
- SyneRyder 9y ago
  It was made with Delphi 2005, ImageEn [1] (a Delphi component for loading & saving image file formats) and the Centaurix Delphi Photoshop component. Sadly Centaurix went out of business. Their SDK was designed for writing Photoshop plugins, but it also had some functions for loading & testing Photoshop plugins, and I used those. There were a lot of bugs that I had to patch to get it working. I made it because my products are Photoshop plug-ins [2], but a lot of people were downloading them without having Photoshop. People would complain after installing that there wasn't a program to run. I thought including a bare-bones standalone graphics editor (no layers, no selections) with the Photoshop plugin download would solve that problem. Actually, it didn't move the needle at all. Seems the people most likely to buy already had Photoshop / PaintShop Pro etc anyway. But it's been useful for running tests on ReactOS, or back when I was using Wine instead of Parallels on my Mac. [1] https://www.imageen.com/ https://www.imageen.com/ [2] https://www.namesuppressed.com/ https://www.namesuppressed.com/
  - jeditobe 9y ago
    Could you make some demo videos about your program and ReactOS?

rnd0 9y ago

quote: c:\dir\ssvn update This might take a while, so please be patient. Local Revision: 76032 Online HEAD Revision: 76032 Your tree is up to date. /unquote So, can anyone confirm for me that 76032 is the reversion that they're calling 0.4.7?

Rondom 9y ago
As said in the article, they switched to git.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
jeditobe 9y ago
https://github.com/reactos/reactos/ https://github.com/reactos/reactos/