ReactOS - one to watch?

.Simon

.Simon

.Simon

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Joined
11 Jan 2010
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333
Has anyone here played around with this?

ReactOS (React Operating System) is an open source computer operating system intended to be binary compatible with application software and device drivers made for Microsoft Windows NT versions 5.x and up (Windows 2000 and its successors). A spin off of a previous attempt to clone Windows 95, development started in early 1998, and has continued with the incremental addition of features already found in Windows.
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ReactOS Info

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Screenshots

I remember trying this one a while back before they got some attention for (maybe) copying some Windows XP source code and using it. They are still working on it, might set it up on an old machine, see how it's coming along.
 
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Well, it's being built from the ground up (not Linux) as a free alternative to running Windows. So that's full compatibility with all Windows code, drivers and applications.

From the F.A.Q.:

Why ReactOS? Why clone Microsoft Windows?

First of all, ReactOS is not a clone of Windows. ReactOS is an operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows applications and drivers. Some of the reasons are the same as the reasons for developing Linux (an open-source UNIX clone)? In short, Linux is a great operating system, but it is not the answer for everybody. There are a lot of people that like Microsoft Windows, but are very frustrated with Microsoft's policies on various issues.

The 9x family of Microsoft Windows is based on DOS, and shares many of its weaknesses, which is the primary reason why Microsoft Windows has such a bad name. The Microsoft Windows NT family of Windows, however, has a solid design. Not everything is perfect, but without access to the source code, there is no way to fix it, so a compatible operating system must be built from the ground up.
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That's the idea. But it's still alpha so probably not yet. The screenshots page shows Unreal Tourmament, Quake 2 and Halo but I think the biggest obstacle will be driver support.
 
Actually I find this interesting, especially if it is open source. Imaging if it gets to the point where driver support and games run without issue. Then imagine this can be implemented into Linux in some way as a kind of 'wine'. You'd then have a wonderful OS like Linus, but it can also play games :)
 
Oxy said:
Can it run games that are designed for xp?
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It's designed to be compatible with Windows Server 2003/XP for now, Vista & 7 come later. It's not stable enough for everyday use, sound and video acceleration are very experimental and not a lot of hardware/software works correctly. It's one to watch as it is continually improving but nowhere near usable as a replacement to XP, Vista or 7 yet. I have succesfully got it to play a video with sound on youtube with flash player 10 on it, although there are issues with FF3 and above.

It's not ready yet, it will be one day.
 
It's definitely one to keep an eye on, I test it every few months. Lets be honest though, it's been in development 12 years already and I still wouldn't even compare it to Windows 95 so I doubt anyone is going to be using it as a primary OS for a long time.
 
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Interesting project, however after using it for a little while, it's no where near being a serious alternative for legacy software at this point in time.
 
Will be watching out for this one and when I build my new machine, I will stick this on it just to give it a try.
 
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