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ReactOS: Rebuilding Microsoft Windows from the ground up, fully open-source
- autotravis 13y agoJust like Windows!: http://screencast.com/t/tWlRhQ3z http://screencast.com/t/tWlRhQ3z Edit: I know it's alpha and I still think it's cool even after that BSOD.
- raddd 13y agocan i run .exe application in here?
- RossM 13y agoYes - they're creating a system that supports the same Windows APIs. You can see a few well known apps running here[0]. [0]: http://www.reactos.org/screenshots http://www.reactos.org/screenshots
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y agoYes, but it might not work.
- _JamesA_ 13y agoSo just like Windows then.
- RKearney 13y agoI don't know about you, but I have much, much better luck running executables under Windows than say Linux or OS X. Microsoft puts a ton of work into keeping backwards compatibility. You can watch the YouTube Video[0] of someone upgrading through every Windows version (well, most?). OS X users have to figure out if they need that Intel or PPC binary, or maybe just the larger universal one and call it a day. Then there's not being able to run any of their older PPC-only apps once Apple removed Rosetta from OS X. [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnehDhGa14
- andoriyu 13y agoGuess what. OS X users upgrade their system much faster than win-users. That leads to developers not wasting time to support old OS X and focus on the new one, with new APIs. > OS X users have to figure out if they need that Intel or PPC binary, or maybe just the larger universal one and call it a day. Whoa, how is life in 2006? >Then there's not being able to run any of their older PPC-only apps once Apple removed Rosetta from OS X. I would like an example of the app that you absolutely want to run. > Microsoft puts a ton of work into keeping backwards compatibility. Usually MS fails at it. Upgrading to win 8 made me furious because apps stopped working. I still remember time when I had to dual-boot win 98 and xp in order to play pre-xp games.
- jongalloway2 13y agoWhich programs didn't work for you under Windows 8? Just curious, I haven't hit one yet.
- Bill_Dimm 13y agoI haven't used Windows 8, but Microsoft's documentation says that IFilter support was removed[1] in Windows 8, so search engine software, document clustering software, etc. that relied on IFilter to extract text from various file formats is probably dead. 1 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms691105(v=vs.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms691105(v=vs.85).as...
- rational_indian 13y agoStart menu 8 and other start menu replacements do not work in windows 8.1 (windows blue). They have deliberately sabotaged these utility programs.
- ygra 13y agoThose programs are very dependent on how Explorer initialises the task bar, in what order messages are posted and how controls are named or laid out. It's not exactly a surprise that those things stop working, given that the program digs around in another program's internals. Besides, Windows 8.1 brings its own start button, so those programs have to be adjusted anyway to account for that. Fun read: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/12/23/45481.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2003/12/23/45481...
- AdrianRossouw 13y agoI definitely admire their moxie, but I have to say that it surprises me that the developers keep on working on this project year-after-year. There was a time many years ago when I was hopeful that ReactOS would end up providing us with an open version of windows to help break their stranglehold. But considering the ways the industry has changed since the project launched in 1998, I just don't think there is much demand for an operating system like this anymore. I would have lost motivation for this project a decade ago, but I still wish the devs the best of luck.
- sounds 13y agoThe #1 story right now is "The Temple Operating System" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6308017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6308017 At least ReactOS isn't likely to incite a religious flamewar: LosethOS, the creator of TempleOS, pushes his religion on you. Ignore him: don't feed the trolls. I _like_ it that operating system news is posted on HN. Operating systems take _forever_ to get anywhere, unless you're a multi-billion-dollar company with armies of grunts working on it. Their goals actually are not that outdated: a non-trivial number of Fortune 500 companies continue to need Windows XP, but Microsoft is giving them the finger. Whether ReactOS can step up and fill in that need or not, wouldn't an entrepreneur want to know that this is possible?
- AdrianRossouw 13y agoThe fortune 500 companies also need the large multinational corporation that supports the well tested and widely deployed legacy systems with bugs and more especially security fixes. Deploying a completely new codebase and opening yourself up to a frightening array of bugs is not really an acceptable risk, sadly. I do enjoy the OS postings too. I hope to see more interesting info on the BeOS ports like Haiku on here too. I also loved that I could finally mess around with RiscOS and Plan9 on a raspberry pi.
- MichaelGG 13y agoFWIW, LosethOS pushes his religion on you as much as the crazy guy on the corner with a "the end is near" sign does. Half of his content seems to be generated by a Markov chain. I also suspect plenty of people here may be intrigued with the "brilliant but insane" aspect he seems to show.
- kchoudhu 13y agoThe best part of this project is that they've provided a way to compile and run a Windows clone on unix
- throwaway2048 13y agoThat is more akin to the wine project, which they share code with. ReactOS is not UNIX/linux/*nix in any meaningful way.
- Lerc 13y agoI have kept half an eye on ReactOS for a number of years. I think it has potential when it gets to the point where it starts having Distros like Linux. I have installed Windows often enough to know how much work it is to turn a Stock windows machine into something tolerable. Things like Ninight try to serve that need as best as possible but being able to spin it into an actual distro would mean you could potentially make a Windows that was truly targeted to what users wanted intead of pushing Microsoft's technology du jour.
- mdisraeli 13y agoThe fun thing about this is that it is allowing diving directly into an approximate implementation of the API, without having to locate the specific Old New Thing post or other such article on an obscure function. I've seen some great write-ups were people have done just this when investigating bugs and strange behaviours, it's rather cool!
- frozenport 13y agoI don't think this is a good use of time. All we need is the Win32 subsystem, I see little use for other parts of the project. The two major pushed besides Windows compatibility are hardware drivers that aren't supported on Linux and supposed performance gains by removing a layer of abstraction. The later is rarely an issue and it can be solved at a later time. The driver thing is absurd because unless the OS is 100% identical, they will not be compatible causing random crashes. Imagine how unstable your system will be if you are running a driver that wasn't tested on your system? I don't want buggy drivers form 2003 on my computer! If this was my requirement I would install Windows XP. This project has the functionality of a wrapper for Wine, why not just wrap Wine into something more useful like a Linux? More time on Wine and less time on this.
- cbhl 13y agoIIRC, a lot of code gets shared between ReactOS and wine. It's not like the two projects are mutually exclusive.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- EvanAnderson 13y agoWin32 is the ugliest part of Windows, to me. I like seeing the lower level "native" NT bits being re-implemented. (I think NT itself is a pretty elegant OS. I'd love to see a "distribution" of NT with a POSIX personality and no Win32.)
- orthecreedence 13y agoOddly enough, as someone who was fluent in SoftICE, I almost cringed when NT surpassed Win32. I love Windows 7 now...the interface is second to none and I don't have to reinstall the OS every 3 months, but sometimes I miss the days where if a program didn't do what I wanted, I could have it grovelling at my feet within 30 minutes. This was great for either sniffing out serial numbers or getting unlimited health in games. I know there are good NT debuggers around nowadays, but nothing really beats loading in at ring0 on Win32 =].
- marcamillion 13y agoThey should put this on Github and start using Git. I would love to browse through the code easily - as I am sure many others would. I think that would likely increase the likelihood that people participate.
- isxek 13y agoWhat's interesting is that the screenshots they have showing how to check out the code using SVN has context menu options for Git: http://www.reactos.org/development/source-control http://www.reactos.org/development/source-control
- userulluipeste 13y agoThey have a read-only mirror for git users: git.reactos.org
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- bussiere 13y agoAs i said higher , i'am a huge fan of gaming culture, concept & game design and with project like that we still be able to play od games originating from the 90s. If you want to be a game designer you have to play to old games.
- lignuist 13y agoReactOS will probably be one of the rare convenient ways to run legacy software for Windows in the future.
- jotm 13y agoWhat, an XP, Vista or 7 VM is not going to be good enough anymore?
- jacob019 13y agonot if you don't want to pay for licenses.
- lignuist 13y agoTry to get a license key in 50 years. ;)
- Piskvorrr 13y agoEven assuming you could somehow, legally, procure a functional one, try to activate it ;)
- jotm 13y agoI thought they solved that problem with XP Mode - which is licensed with the same key as your Windows 7 or 8...
- T3RMINATED 13y agotheyve been stuck in alpha for like a decade... by the time Windows UI becomes futuristic they will still have windows 95 UI... ReactOS in my opinion is nothing but a hobby i wouldnt use it for free even if Windows costs 2000$
- dodyg 13y agoSuccessful software lasts decades. Yeah, that accounting system might run on rickety Windows XP and developed on PowerBuilder 0.2 but it sustains a multi million dollar operations without a hitch. There are tons of happy software running on old operating systems. It takes years to depreciate your software assets. It makes no sense to keep redeveloping all your software just because Ember 2.0 and Node.js (asm.js) are out. ReactOS is amazing.
- jgoodwin 13y agoOne of the very nicest things about the ReactOS project is their build chain -- you can download one project and have a very nice toolchain for building open source software targeting the windows platform, with very little fuss. Consider the pain of getting a functional Cygwin system able to target non-GNU libraries. Also, it's just plain fun to use the ReactOS desktop to look at your own desktop looking back at ReactOS ... and drag the ReactOS window down so it does the whole infinite mirror thing.
- juskrey 13y agoDownloaded official VirtualBox image and ran. This is total immersion, just splendid. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-DL6-mRptqHM/UiMTf_TCY9I/AAAAAAAAUco/bD4AFt2Kyp0/s640/2013-09-01-125524_1280x800_scrot.jpg https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-DL6-mRptqHM/UiMTf_TCY9I/A...
- voltagex_ 13y agoSeems to be disk related - maybe try another emulated controller?
- juskrey 13y agoI am not an expert in virtualbox, but what is the point of images then..
- voltagex_ 13y agoIt's unfortunate you're having trouble. I'm running the latest (beta) version of VirtualBox and it seems to be fine for me. A VM is not magic, it's emulating real hardware under there - a PIIX4 IDE controller by the look of the settings. You may have better luck picking another option in Settings under Storage.
- juskrey 13y agoOh well, I have no chance to test this, since ReactOS magically began to start. Thanks for the conversation, anyway.
- bussiere 13y agoWine depend on too many microsoft components for games, sometimes it's difficult to find the good component on microsoft website. And if microsoft stop giving that component ....
- aaronh 13y agoWe know. ReactOS has been around for many years.
- tmzt 13y agoThere were questions a day or so ago about running Docker on Windows. Would it be possible to build a react OS based system that supported running Win32/64 based applications in an isolated environment on Windows or POSIX? For instance, running a CSRSS and all child processes with a binary Registry.
- DigitalSea 13y agoThe goal of creating an open sourced version of Windows has always intrigued me. But I can't help but wonder if the time would be better spent working on WINE itself which at least works a whole lot better but needs more resources than trying to build a new operating system mimicking Windows. I believe this project has been around since 1998/1999 and I admire their determination. But if you want Windows, just use Windows. What I and many other Linux users have been wanting for years is a way to run basic Windows applications within Linux. Wine bridges this gap somewhat and for many apps it works well. My dream is to see Adobe CS6 running on Linux flawlessly to the point people can ditch Windows completely.
- brokenparser 13y agoOlder versions work, what is so important in the latest version that you can't use the old? How did you get any work done say, 2 to 3 years ago?