
ReactOS: Rebuilding Microsoft Windows from the ground up, fully open-source - kunai
http://www.reactos.org/about-reactos
======
AdrianRossouw
I 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.

~~~
Legion
I don't think you're looking at the project the right way.

Think about it like FreeDOS. FreeDOS facilitates running DOS software on
modern hardware, and by its open nature, it can continue to evolve and make
DOS software runnable on the next generation of hardware.

Think about 10, 15, 20 years from now, and all that software written for XP.
That is where ReactOS comes in. A sustainable, maintainable platform for
running XP-era software on hardware systems yet to come.

At least, that's how I see the project, as someone who is neither involved nor
a close follower of it.

~~~
superuser2
Why is that a good thing for the world? Serious question. Why should we enable
businesses that don't want to develop modern software? Doesn't this hold back
the world in terms of productivity and software quality?

~~~
wvenable
The side of the coin: Why are we wasting time re-writing software that is
already done? How is that progress?

~~~
Piskvorrr
Because the already-done software (e.g. XP) has serious issues; namely, even
if you have obtained it legally, you can't legally install and run it without
the manufacturer's _explicit_ consent (activation servers _will_ go down some
time after EOL - after that, you can either go illegal and crack your copy, or
you can't use it at all). In other words, it's timebombed. (Note that I'm not
passing judgement on this - just stating the existence of such condition.)

For a home user, this is a non-issue (as "meh, just get a new OS" is also an
option, due to commodity hardware); for an organization, this is big trouble
(as neither "so we'll use the OS illegally, whatever" or "so we'll throw away
the equipment we now can't use" is an option).

~~~
lttlrck
Or Microsoft could issue a hotfix to remove the license check. Adobe has such
unlocked version of CS2.

~~~
Piskvorrr
Which is something which might happen, or perhaps not, and is entirely under
MS's control and discretion.

IMNSHO, this is a very unlikely scenario - the (misguided) reaction of the
general public would be something like "oh look, XP had its antipiracy
protection disabled by MS, which means it's now free to use; who needs Win8
anyway?" I can't imagine MS essentially undermining one of its core cash cows
(Windows) anytime in the near future, especially as the "meh, just get a new
computer with new Windows" line has proven effective in most cases. Also, as I
have yet to see this to happen to any deprecated and truly obsolete MS product
(Altair BASIC? MS-DOS? Windows 3.11?), I don't see that happening to a product
which is anything but disused.

~~~
delian66
It is easy for me to imagine them doing it, if they wait enough time, that
most new hardware has no XP drivers anymore, and most programs/games depend on
higher versions of windows APIs, the general public will not care about the
then obsolete XP, just like they do not care about DOS, or Windows 3.11 and so
on.

I agree that this is an act of kindness, that can not be depended on and it is
entirely under MS control when/if it will happen.

------
dodyg
Successful 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.

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autotravis
Just 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.

------
mdisraeli
The 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!

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juskrey
Downloaded official VirtualBox image and ran. This is total immersion, just
splendid.
[https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-DL6-mRptqHM/UiMTf_TCY9I/A...](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-DL6-mRptqHM/UiMTf_TCY9I/AAAAAAAAUco/bD4AFt2Kyp0/s640/2013-09-01-125524_1280x800_scrot.jpg)

~~~
voltagex_
Seems to be disk related - maybe try another emulated controller?

~~~
juskrey
I am not an expert in virtualbox, but what is the point of images then..

~~~
voltagex_
It'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
Oh well, I have no chance to test this, since ReactOS magically began to
start. Thanks for the conversation, anyway.

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jgoodwin
One 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.

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marcamillion
They 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
What'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)

------
Lerc
I 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.

------
tmzt
There 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
The 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
Older 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?

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kchoudhu
The best part of this project is that they've provided a way to compile and
run a Windows clone _on unix_

~~~
throwaway2048
That is more akin to the wine project, which they share code with. ReactOS is
not UNIX/linux/*nix in any meaningful way.

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lignuist
ReactOS will probably be one of the rare convenient ways to run legacy
software for Windows in the future.

~~~
jotm
What, an XP, Vista or 7 VM is not going to be good enough anymore?

~~~
lignuist
Try to get a license key in 50 years. ;)

~~~
Piskvorrr
Even assuming you could somehow, legally, procure a functional one, try to
activate it ;)

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frozenport
I 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.

~~~
EvanAnderson
Win32 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
Oddly 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 =].

------
bussiere
As 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.

------
bussiere
Wine 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 ....

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raddd
can i run .exe application in here?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Yes, but it might not work.

~~~
_JamesA_
So just like Windows then.

~~~
RKearney
I 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
Guess 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
Which programs didn't work for you under Windows 8? Just curious, I haven't
hit one yet.

~~~
wazoox
Most excellent old games that used to work fine on XP don't work anymore on
Windows 8 (Stronghold, Thief, Warlords battlecry 2...) or only after long
hours of tinkering.

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aaronh
We know. ReactOS has been around for many years.

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T3RMINATED
theyve 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$

