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ReactOS 0.4.9 released
- tombert 8y agoAnyone here tried running ReactOS full time?
- seibelj 8y agoI'll add, in a production, real-world environment? It's a very cool project, I would love to hear from someone who is getting value out of it.
- joshumax 8y agoIn a previous comment on HN[1], I discussed why we use copies of ReactOS on all of our deployed Bitcoin ATMs. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17215812 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17215812
- jeditobe 8y agoHello from ReactOS team! Could you record and share with us a little video about it? It may help us to promote our project...
- anticensor 8y agoHe should write into ReactOS forum's EPIC WIN thread: https://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10972 https://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10972
- binarymaster 8y agoBut it would be nice to see a video too ^^)
- omn1 8y agoAre you planning to write an article about it? Would make for a very interesting read.
- bArray 8y agoI tried with limited success on a very old laptop (on the previous release): * USB drives didn't come up correctly - it couldn't see anything past the "root" hub (as an end user it was just a USB port on the laptop). * Wasn't able to connect to the internet using either the Belkin wireless card or the standard ethernet port. * Stability was relatively impressive, didn't handle lack of RAM too gracefully though. As there wasn't an easy way to get any kind of media into the laptop, I gave up. Getting either of those working well could at least extend the usefulness to being a great writing machine. Gvim + LaTeX and I'll be fully away. Half the time I think a person wanting to rip off Windows (I know, I know) would be better off writing a Windows 95/98 looking X11 window manager and hacking it to only use Wine. Seemingly for free you would get tonnes of hardware support and the obvious benefits of Wine. You could even emulate the "upgrade whilst shutting down" behaviour to update Linux underneath. I think you could quickly end up with something that would pass at first glance.
- SmellyGeekBoy 8y ago> Half the time I think a person wanting to rip off Windows (I know, I know) would be better off writing a Windows 95/98 looking X11 window manager and hacking it to only use Wine. Seemingly for free you would get tonnes of hardware support and the obvious benefits of Wine. You could even emulate the "upgrade whilst shutting down" behaviour to update Linux underneath. I think you could quickly end up with something that would pass at first glance. This was attempted once with "Lindows" (later renamed to "Linspire" after the inevitable Microsoft lawsuit). Wikipedia informs me that they're actually still around in one form or another and owned by Xandros these days.
- jacobush 8y agoLindows was interesting. Windows was much more relevant then, not as much web stuff going on, no mobile apps. Unfortunately, Wine was not very feature complete, so it fell on its face quickly.
- bArray 8y agoIn what sense? I think Wine is pretty good on most applications up to a year ago as long as they're not games?
- wyldfire 8y agoI'm especially curious about a use case for building and testing binaries that could be deployed on Windows. Is it reliable enough and high enough fidelity that it won't introduce false positive/negatives?
- coolspot 8y agoIt amazes me how they were able to move forward all these 20 (!) years without losing motivation.
- petetnt 8y agoIt also seems that migrating to GitHub paid off too, as seen in the release notes: > Since the transition to GitHub, the project has also received many pull requests from old and new contributors alike.
- whatshisface 8y agoIt's funny that Microsoft now hosts the source code of both major Windows implementations.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dvfjsdhgfv 8y agoNobody perceives ReactOS as a threat at the moment, but I wonder what Microsoft's stance would be if the project developed much faster, for example by receiving funding from a bigger institution...
- d33 8y agoWell as a matter of fact Google already funded them a couple of times: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code
- osullivj 8y agoCut Windows licensing charges for corporates to ensure that the total cost of ownership of Windows is lower than ReactOS. IMHO ReactOS should target corporates who have old Win32 apps still running on XP or Win7 that they can't or won't migrate to Win10.
- jkabrg 8y agoHas anybody tried running some old computer viruses on it? Or what about those "tech support" calls you get, where they try and take over your Windows computer? It would be fun to follow their instructions in ReactOS, mainly out of curiosity (and to screw with them). Seriously, next time you get a call from one of them, give them an excuse to ring you back later; then install Virtualbox, ReactOS, some mic and screen recording software, and wait.
- tehabe 8y agoYou'll find a lot of those on YouTube.
- simcop2387 8y agoA few people have done this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr220CbJTQc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr220CbJTQc It usually confuses them a lot.
- ddevault 8y agoThis doesn't look like ReactOS was involved in any capacity other than its logo.
- Koshkin 8y agoThe main point seems to be compatibility with Windows device drivers. Otherwise, Wine on Linux should suffice. (?)
- sp332 8y agoThe two projects collaborate a lot, documenting and implementing APIs.
- pierrec 8y agoSometimes I wonder why every single release of ReactOS seems to make the front page of HN. Then I'm quickly reminded of how well-written, interesting and detailed the release notes are. It's like reading through an adventure story where the contributors are heroes. More open source projects should have this.
- orionblastar 8y agoI agree other FOSS operating systems should get the same coverage as ReactOS.
- wiz21c 8y agoI suppose it's because ReactOS is replicating Windows, that is, it awakens fond memories of old activists (times when MSWin was the private enemy number one). Nowadays, I guess the new activist would be more bothered by something that can replace Android (or Apple for extra kudo).
- JdeBP 8y agoThey do. * https://netbsd.org/releases/formal-8/NetBSD-8.0.html https://netbsd.org/releases/formal-8/NetBSD-8.0.html (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17582199 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17582199)
- tzahola 8y agoMy hypothesis is that some people blindly upvote anything that has the word “React” in it.
- dwild 8y agoEvery month Dolphin has a progress report doing exactly that. They actually go pretty deep on how they fixed the different issues. https://fr.dolphin-emu.org/blog/2018/07/06/dolphin-progress-report-june-2018/ https://fr.dolphin-emu.org/blog/2018/07/06/dolphin-progress-...
- orionblastar 8y agoThe big test would be server mode to take on Windows Server. Samba and WAMP.
- chris_wot 8y agoOne day it may well run the Linux subsystem.
- mycall 8y agoDoes WINE work in WSL?
- toomanybeersies 8y agoBetter still, could WSL work in WINE?
- andyonthewings 8y agoI've just tried to install it as a VirtualBox VM, and it kinda works! I had to select a different network adapter for the network to work, and the screensaver screen made the system unresponsive. But it's still impressive. I totally love it that it has a 50/50 chance of getting stuck in the login screen like a Windows 98.
- mclehman 8y agoWhat did you do to get the network working specifically? I was hoping that adding the legacy network adapter would do it, but it prompted and subsequently failed to install an ethernet driver after I did.
- andyonthewings 8y agoUse PCnet-FAST III as mentioned in their wiki: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/VirtualBox https://www.reactos.org/wiki/VirtualBox
- andyonthewings 8y agoUpdate: I'm able to stabilize the booting process by changing the VM "pointing device" config from "USB tablet" to "PS/2 mouse".
- hitekker 8y agoIt’d be hilarious if Google started donating to the project. No endgame in mind, just trolling to get a paranoid reaction out of Microsoft. I’ve heard that Steam OS was partly created to nudge Windows out of its windows gaming intiative during the Windows 8 era.
- d33 8y agoWell as a matter of fact Google already funded them a couple of times: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code
- jacobush 8y agoAt the very least, Steam OS was kind of a far off hedge. Like building a fallout shelter in your back yard. Pretty cheap, kind of spectacular, very low chance of it being used. But, boy, should the need arise you'd be happy to have it.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoI don't think that was the original intent, just what it came to be after it was clear that Microsoft wasn't going to aggressively dismantle the open* nature of Windows as a platform. Based on Microsoft's language around the Windows App Store and UWP at the time, and just being Microsoft, that was a reasonable concern. *That is, open for anyone to develop and release software for without going through a third party.
- megaman22 8y agoWhat a waste of time and energy the Windows Store and UWP are. I've yet to see any apps on there better than the pre-existing standalone ones, and the developer messaging on that front has been all over the road. At various points C++, C#, and JS have been touted as the way to go forward, but from where I sit everybody is still banging on Win32.
- digi_owl 8y ago
- JdeBP 8y agoWhat I wrote about CHKDSK at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17592182 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17592182 still applies. (-:
- compsciphd 8y agoA thought I just had: ReactOS would be an intereting concept to "containerize" old windows apps to enable them to run in a public / private cloud environment. Basically a way for people to "modernize" (at least the way the apps are managed if not the apps themselves).