7 ms·

Explorer Shell Merged

166 points by jeditobe 12y ago

userbinator 12y ago
Looks good at first glance, but there's something about the icons that compared to the real Windows ones doesn't seem quite right; I understand there's copyright issues with using the Windows icons exactly, but these icons have a very "Linux-ish" appearance to them, for lack of a better term.
- oblio 12y ago
  They're probably stock Tango items. You've probably seen them before in Linux distributions and OSS software, ergo the association.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    In fact, they are stock Tango icons.
- T3RMINATED 12y ago
  they have lots of catching up to do... windows 9 is coming... Running ReactOS = FREE... Running Windows 95 = $1.00 -- i might as well take win95 who isnt a reverse engineered product. same sh*t. -----
jeditobe 12y ago
A lot of screenshots http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/enjoy-the-new-reactos-explorer http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/enjoy-the-new-re...
- digi_owl 12y ago
  Looks more Win2k than XP, and that is a good thing in my book.
  - jeditobe 12y ago
    More fixes are coming :-)
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    ReactOS has some theming support, so you can make it look Luna-ish if you want.
    - digi_owl 12y ago
      Deities forbid...
- dingdingdang 12y ago
  Thanks, these should be linked in the communique!
- frik 12y ago
  Compare it with screenshots of the old explorer: http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html http://www.reactos.org/screenshots http://www.reactos.org/screenshots Information about the old explorer: http://www.foxplanet.de/explorer/ http://www.foxplanet.de/explorer/
TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
Oh man, this is pretty big. Good as it was at the time, it's nice that ROS finally, finally gets the shell it's always deserved. I wonder how well it will interact with Windows apps that deal with explorer.exe.
- chris_wot 12y ago
  Depends on the app - sometimes the apps don't work well under Windows - as Raymond Chen found. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2011/08/03/10192225.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2011/08/03/10192...
rbanffy 12y ago
I commend their dedication, but I don't quite understand why they do it. Is it fun to develop? What do the developers get from it? I understand what the Linux kernel developers get (it touches the lives of almost every living human being) or the BSD folks do (it's a exquisitely well built OS) or the Haiku ones (it's a really cool OS), but reimplementing Windows, with all the cruft needed to be binary compatible is an exercise the joys of which completely elude me.
- schrijver 12y ago
  ‘Reverse engineering’ must be a joy all to itself. And it’s hugely important because it lets old software live on. Think of 90ies games for example, so often made for the DOS/Windows platform. Projects like ScummVM, Dosbox and Wine make that accessible right now. React takes that a step further still I imagine.
  - digi_owl 12y ago
    Helped a relative set up a new computer this year. Found that a program they enjoyed using dated back to 3.11 or something. Only noticed this because it refused to run on 64-bit Windows 8...
    - rbanffy 12y ago
      Yes, but a modern computer is certainly capable of running that program perfectly under a virtual machine running the actual matching release of Windows. Heck... I once started porting Hercules, the mainframe emulator, so I could have a fully functional 370 series mainframe in my Nokia E62 phone.
      - digi_owl 12y ago
        Means i need to dig up a Windows 95 iso or something, and instruct them in how to launch the thing once set up...
        12y ago
secfirstmd 12y ago
As someone who often trains people in places in the world with low levels of IT literacy - where Windows is by far the dominant platform (very little chance of most people affording Mac or being able to pick up Linux). I've always thought ReactOS had a useful ability to bridge the problem of people a) not being able to afford new versions of Windows b) Even when they do, often ending up with counterfeit versions of it.
dingdingdang 12y ago
Congratulations to the ReactOS team, awesome work! :)
T3RMINATED 12y ago
they have lots of catching up to do... windows 9 is coming... Running ReactOS = FREE... Running Windows 95 = $1.00 -- i might as well take win95 who isnt a reverse engineered product. same sh*t.
overgard 12y ago
Looking at those screenshots made me a bit nostalgic for the old windows 2000 UI. It wasn't exactly showy, but from a UX experience it was great (clean lines, nice spacing, easy to find things, responsive, consistent). Every UI Microsoft has done since then has sort of been a regression, even if not a terrible one. Windows XP looked like a cheap toy, Aero was pretty but their insistence on killing menus and blending UI elements with the title bar was weird, and metro is awkward on a desktop. I know you can still go back to "classic" mode, but it's definitely a second class citizen at this point.
- rsync 12y ago
  Agreed. I do not miss working in a Windows OS as I much, much prefer a UNIX system. However I do miss working in a Windows UI. You could very quickly and efficiently do just about everything with keystrokes. I much prefer the win2k UI over the OSX UI.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - jeditobe 12y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8666656 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8666656
- krylon 12y ago
  I use Windows 7 at work, and I have to admit it has kind of grown on me. For once, Microsoft got a couple of things right. Aero Snap is great, and the search field in the start menu is very useful, too. But otherwise, I agree, they had a good thing going, and then they went and ruined it. I am not opposed to change, but if it is change just for the sake of change, I do not see the point.
- dingdingdang 12y ago
  Why is it "second class citizen"? I've used it exclusively with Win7 and it works fine (granted it does need 7 Taskbar Tweaker for best results..). I have never ever liked the Aero Peek feature of Win7: it invariably adds extra steps and mouse work to the simple task of switching between apps for no good reason (no, seeing a mini thumbnail of an app I already know is running does not make anything clearer or better). ReactOS, I will be happy to go there if I ever get the chance from a compatibility standpoint.
jeditobe 12y ago
If somebody wants to support ReactOS development, he can do it by use of https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reactos/issues https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reactos/issues Cast your bounties on bugs that bother you.
erikb 12y ago
I never heard about reactos before. Am I right to assume that this is Windows 98 as Open Source project? Am I right to assume that a lot of people who hate that XP is not maintaned anymore will switch to something like that instead of Linux or BSD? If that's true I have to sit in a corner for a while crying my heart out...
- jeditobe 12y ago
  Actually this is Windows 2003\XP as Open Source project

166 points by jeditobe 12y ago

Looks good at first glance, but there's something about the icons that compared to the real Windows ones doesn't seem quite right; I understand there's copyright issues with using the Windows icons exactly, but these icons have a very "Linux-ish" appearance to them, for lack of a better term.

oblio 12y ago
They're probably stock Tango items. You've probably seen them before in Linux distributions and OSS software, ergo the association.
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  In fact, they are stock Tango icons.
T3RMINATED 12y ago
they have lots of catching up to do... windows 9 is coming... Running ReactOS = FREE... Running Windows 95 = $1.00 -- i might as well take win95 who isnt a reverse engineered product. same sh*t. -----

jeditobe 12y ago

A lot of screenshots http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/enjoy-the-new-reactos-explorer http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/enjoy-the-new-re...

digi_owl 12y ago
Looks more Win2k than XP, and that is a good thing in my book.
- jeditobe 12y ago
  More fixes are coming :-)
- TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
  ReactOS has some theming support, so you can make it look Luna-ish if you want.
  - digi_owl 12y ago
    Deities forbid...
dingdingdang 12y ago
Thanks, these should be linked in the communique!
frik 12y ago
Compare it with screenshots of the old explorer: http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html http://www.reactos.org/screenshots http://www.reactos.org/screenshots Information about the old explorer: http://www.foxplanet.de/explorer/ http://www.foxplanet.de/explorer/

TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago

Oh man, this is pretty big. Good as it was at the time, it's nice that ROS finally, finally gets the shell it's always deserved. I wonder how well it will interact with Windows apps that deal with explorer.exe.

chris_wot 12y ago
Depends on the app - sometimes the apps don't work well under Windows - as Raymond Chen found. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2011/08/03/10192225.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2011/08/03/10192...

rbanffy 12y ago

I commend their dedication, but I don't quite understand why they do it. Is it fun to develop? What do the developers get from it? I understand what the Linux kernel developers get (it touches the lives of almost every living human being) or the BSD folks do (it's a exquisitely well built OS) or the Haiku ones (it's a really cool OS), but reimplementing Windows, with all the cruft needed to be binary compatible is an exercise the joys of which completely elude me.

schrijver 12y ago
‘Reverse engineering’ must be a joy all to itself. And it’s hugely important because it lets old software live on. Think of 90ies games for example, so often made for the DOS/Windows platform. Projects like ScummVM, Dosbox and Wine make that accessible right now. React takes that a step further still I imagine.
- digi_owl 12y ago
  Helped a relative set up a new computer this year. Found that a program they enjoyed using dated back to 3.11 or something. Only noticed this because it refused to run on 64-bit Windows 8...
  - rbanffy 12y ago
    Yes, but a modern computer is certainly capable of running that program perfectly under a virtual machine running the actual matching release of Windows. Heck... I once started porting Hercules, the mainframe emulator, so I could have a fully functional 370 series mainframe in my Nokia E62 phone.
    - digi_owl 12y ago
      Means i need to dig up a Windows 95 iso or something, and instruct them in how to launch the thing once set up...
      - 12y ago

secfirstmd 12y ago

As someone who often trains people in places in the world with low levels of IT literacy - where Windows is by far the dominant platform (very little chance of most people affording Mac or being able to pick up Linux). I've always thought ReactOS had a useful ability to bridge the problem of people a) not being able to afford new versions of Windows b) Even when they do, often ending up with counterfeit versions of it.

dingdingdang 12y ago

Congratulations to the ReactOS team, awesome work! :)

T3RMINATED 12y ago

they have lots of catching up to do... windows 9 is coming... Running ReactOS = FREE... Running Windows 95 = $1.00 -- i might as well take win95 who isnt a reverse engineered product. same sh*t.

overgard 12y ago

Looking at those screenshots made me a bit nostalgic for the old windows 2000 UI. It wasn't exactly showy, but from a UX experience it was great (clean lines, nice spacing, easy to find things, responsive, consistent). Every UI Microsoft has done since then has sort of been a regression, even if not a terrible one. Windows XP looked like a cheap toy, Aero was pretty but their insistence on killing menus and blending UI elements with the title bar was weird, and metro is awkward on a desktop. I know you can still go back to "classic" mode, but it's definitely a second class citizen at this point.

rsync 12y ago
Agreed. I do not miss working in a Windows OS as I much, much prefer a UNIX system. However I do miss working in a Windows UI. You could very quickly and efficiently do just about everything with keystrokes. I much prefer the win2k UI over the OSX UI.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- jeditobe 12y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8666656 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8666656
krylon 12y ago
I use Windows 7 at work, and I have to admit it has kind of grown on me. For once, Microsoft got a couple of things right. Aero Snap is great, and the search field in the start menu is very useful, too. But otherwise, I agree, they had a good thing going, and then they went and ruined it. I am not opposed to change, but if it is change just for the sake of change, I do not see the point.
dingdingdang 12y ago
Why is it "second class citizen"? I've used it exclusively with Win7 and it works fine (granted it does need 7 Taskbar Tweaker for best results..). I have never ever liked the Aero Peek feature of Win7: it invariably adds extra steps and mouse work to the simple task of switching between apps for no good reason (no, seeing a mini thumbnail of an app I already know is running does not make anything clearer or better). ReactOS, I will be happy to go there if I ever get the chance from a compatibility standpoint.

jeditobe 12y ago

If somebody wants to support ReactOS development, he can do it by use of https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reactos/issues https://www.bountysource.com/teams/reactos/issues Cast your bounties on bugs that bother you.

erikb 12y ago

I never heard about reactos before. Am I right to assume that this is Windows 98 as Open Source project? Am I right to assume that a lot of people who hate that XP is not maintaned anymore will switch to something like that instead of Linux or BSD? If that's true I have to sit in a corner for a while crying my heart out...

jeditobe 12y ago
Actually this is Windows 2003\XP as Open Source project