6 ms·

Has anybody tried this? Thoughts? How well does windows compatibility work IRL?

by lnlyplnt 13y ago

tmikaeld 13y ago
Since they doesn't go into any specifics, i suspect the same as wine?
- M2Ys4U 13y ago
  It's been some time since I've looked at ReactOS, but it's a bit more than that. ReactOS actually uses some of the wine libs, and the two projects work together. IIRC, ReactOS actually aims for driver compatibility, so you should be able to completely replace Windows with React.
  - josh-wrale 13y ago
    I'm glad I read this comment. Maybe my basically driver-defunct M-Audio Firewire 410 can be revived using ReactOS. Cool.
  - davidgerard 13y ago
    Well, they don't "work together" - Wine devs avoid ReactOS code and devs like the plague. However, Wine is happy for ReactOS to use their DLLs - so Wine does Win32 and ReactOS does the lower, weirder layers that Wine doesn't bother with.
    - uaygsfdbzf 13y ago
      Actually they kind of do, though not as directly as the term "work together" seems to imply. There are a few Wine Devs who actively check (and post comments, advice, etc. on) the ReactOS bug reporting system ( http://jira.reactos.org http://jira.reactos.org ) and most of the Wine patches I've seen from ReactOS Devs get included in Wine pretty quick. Note: There was a time when ReactOS Devs and Wine Devs were not on good terms, but for the most part at least those days are gone.
    - pritambaral 13y ago
      > Wine devs avoid ReactOS code and devs like the plague Is this due to any patent/copyright issues?
      - davidgerard 13y ago
        Copyright worries, I believe. Wine is paranoid of contributors who may have looked too closely at Windows or reverse-engineered it in potentially risky ways. I am vague on details. Also, Wine is LGPL and ReactOS is GPL, so no code can flow in that direction.
        uaygsfdbzf 13y ago
        ReactOS uses only "clean-room" reverse engineering, so this is not a concern. Also Wine Patches from ReactOS Devs are always sent to Wine first, thus they get Wine's LGPL license, then the ReactOS Devs do a "Wine Sync" to get the code into ReactOS; thus code-flow due to Licensing is also a non-issue.
        VoiceOfWisdom 13y ago
        uaygsfdbzf, you are marked as dead. I believe this is due to a somewhat brusk comment you made earlier, but your other comments deserve to be seen.
        uaygsfdbzf 13y ago
        ... hmmm, off the top of my head I'm not sure what I did to get 'killed'. ... Is there [anything I can do / anyone I can ask] to get ... 'resurrected'?
- iso8859-1 13y ago
  Wine works better. For example, it has better 3D support since it can leverage the host stack. Some non-3D apps like Java run better under Wine too.
frik 13y ago
(former dev) ReactOS is an open source reimplementation of Windows NT series operating system (e.g. Win 2003 Server, 7, 2008). Similar to Linux started as an reimplementation of Unix. ReactOS has binary compatible with Windows. This allow your Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used (Win95 classic style and WinXP theme support). ReactOS is still in development, but a lot of Windows apps and some several types of hardware drivers work fine or with minor glitches. You can find screenshots on http://www.reactos.org http://www.reactos.org and even more on the following page: http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html
- jksmith 13y ago
  Would love to dig up my old Win95 Holmes' London theme with the smoking pipe mouse pointer to see if it would work with ReactOS.
  - mickeyp 13y ago
    Gosh I remember that theme! Don't forget the "Island Man" [0] screensaver, Johnny Castaway. We used to spend hours watching him and his antics back in the day. I miss the whimsy of yore. 0: http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gnudawn/johnny/ http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gnudawn/johnny/ Observe: a proper, old-school 90s website unravaged by time.
pizza234 13y ago
I tried it. It's simply not suitable for real-world usage, and actually, not suitable for anything more than installing it in a virtual machine, playing with it for fun, and destroying the VM. The "alpha"ness of ReactOS is not the same concept of, say, Ubuntu. Sad, but true. It needs a huge amount of work; compatibility matter little - if one needs compatibility for a given up, wine is a much more usable choice. If one really needs XP compatiblity, I think an XP in a virtual machine without networking is going to be the workaround for a very long time.

Has anybody tried this? Thoughts? How well does windows compatibility work IRL?

tmikaeld 13y ago

Since they doesn't go into any specifics, i suspect the same as wine?

M2Ys4U 13y ago
It's been some time since I've looked at ReactOS, but it's a bit more than that. ReactOS actually uses some of the wine libs, and the two projects work together. IIRC, ReactOS actually aims for driver compatibility, so you should be able to completely replace Windows with React.
- josh-wrale 13y ago
  I'm glad I read this comment. Maybe my basically driver-defunct M-Audio Firewire 410 can be revived using ReactOS. Cool.
- davidgerard 13y ago
  Well, they don't "work together" - Wine devs avoid ReactOS code and devs like the plague. However, Wine is happy for ReactOS to use their DLLs - so Wine does Win32 and ReactOS does the lower, weirder layers that Wine doesn't bother with.
  - uaygsfdbzf 13y ago
    Actually they kind of do, though not as directly as the term "work together" seems to imply. There are a few Wine Devs who actively check (and post comments, advice, etc. on) the ReactOS bug reporting system ( http://jira.reactos.org http://jira.reactos.org ) and most of the Wine patches I've seen from ReactOS Devs get included in Wine pretty quick. Note: There was a time when ReactOS Devs and Wine Devs were not on good terms, but for the most part at least those days are gone.
  - pritambaral 13y ago
    > Wine devs avoid ReactOS code and devs like the plague Is this due to any patent/copyright issues?
    - davidgerard 13y ago
      Copyright worries, I believe. Wine is paranoid of contributors who may have looked too closely at Windows or reverse-engineered it in potentially risky ways. I am vague on details. Also, Wine is LGPL and ReactOS is GPL, so no code can flow in that direction.
      - uaygsfdbzf 13y ago
        ReactOS uses only "clean-room" reverse engineering, so this is not a concern. Also Wine Patches from ReactOS Devs are always sent to Wine first, thus they get Wine's LGPL license, then the ReactOS Devs do a "Wine Sync" to get the code into ReactOS; thus code-flow due to Licensing is also a non-issue.
      - VoiceOfWisdom 13y ago
        uaygsfdbzf, you are marked as dead. I believe this is due to a somewhat brusk comment you made earlier, but your other comments deserve to be seen.
        uaygsfdbzf 13y ago
        ... hmmm, off the top of my head I'm not sure what I did to get 'killed'. ... Is there [anything I can do / anyone I can ask] to get ... 'resurrected'?
iso8859-1 13y ago
Wine works better. For example, it has better 3D support since it can leverage the host stack. Some non-3D apps like Java run better under Wine too.

frik 13y ago

(former dev) ReactOS is an open source reimplementation of Windows NT series operating system (e.g. Win 2003 Server, 7, 2008). Similar to Linux started as an reimplementation of Unix. ReactOS has binary compatible with Windows. This allow your Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used (Win95 classic style and WinXP theme support). ReactOS is still in development, but a lot of Windows apps and some several types of hardware drivers work fine or with minor glitches. You can find screenshots on http://www.reactos.org http://www.reactos.org and even more on the following page: http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html

jksmith 13y ago
Would love to dig up my old Win95 Holmes' London theme with the smoking pipe mouse pointer to see if it would work with ReactOS.
- mickeyp 13y ago
  Gosh I remember that theme! Don't forget the "Island Man" [0] screensaver, Johnny Castaway. We used to spend hours watching him and his antics back in the day. I miss the whimsy of yore. 0: http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gnudawn/johnny/ http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gnudawn/johnny/ Observe: a proper, old-school 90s website unravaged by time.

pizza234 13y ago

I tried it. It's simply not suitable for real-world usage, and actually, not suitable for anything more than installing it in a virtual machine, playing with it for fun, and destroying the VM. The "alpha"ness of ReactOS is not the same concept of, say, Ubuntu. Sad, but true. It needs a huge amount of work; compatibility matter little - if one needs compatibility for a given up, wine is a much more usable choice. If one really needs XP compatiblity, I think an XP in a virtual machine without networking is going to be the workaround for a very long time.