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Comment by grishka | Hacker News Reader

I keep wondering lately what would happen if/when ReactOS becomes mature enough to be usable beyond curious experimentation. For the first time in a long while Microsoft will have to compete with something that has a switching cost close to zero and is free and doesn't do any of the telemetry and dark patterns and other stuff to appease the stakeholders.

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ReactOS's mere existence doesn't mean it is actually competing in a meaningful way. People use Windows on PCs because it is what is preinstalled from OEMs, not because they made a conscious decision to choose the OS.

https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide...

If you want to replace MacOS or Windows dominance, you don't need a better OS. You need an OS that is preinstalled on hardware that people buy.

Which is nearly impossible to do unless you also own the hardware. It's allegedly one reason BeOS failed, OEMs almost unanimously refused to offer it on their hardware because of the threat of losing their Windows licenses. There was a pretty big lawsuit about it that ended with a settlement and MS not admitting anything.

Do you think that’s likely to ever actually happen? It has had well over twenty years and isn’t there yet.

I think SteamOS has more traction and momentum, it seems at least in my family and friend group most people just use a tablet (iPad, almost exclusively) for leisure computing and not a laptop anymore.

So, that leaves pretty much gamers as a heavy Windows home userbase.

I'm sure there's more to the story, those are just my observations of my social circle.

I am glad you used leisure computing an not working. I never experienced anyone doing serious creative work in the sense of creating something on a tablet.

In essence they are devices to give your personal data to a third party.

>I never experienced anyone doing serious creative work in the sense of creating something on a tablet.

You must not know many illustrators, which is understandable, but I’m not sure I follow the overall point. Are you saying home users still need something to replace Windows for non leisure computing?

The age of ReactOS is less relevant than the development velocity; they're chasing a moving target, albeit with the advantage of only needing to implement the features that end users and third-party software actually need.

> The age of ReactOS is less relevant than the development velocity

Sure, so what's the development velocity now and did it increase recently? And for when is an actual usable version planned? Alongside GNU Hurd?

IMO win32 isn't much of a moving target any more. Microsoft stopped significantly evolving it around after Windows 7, instead switching to their modern .net-based stuff like UWP.

ReactOS as a full-time replacement for Windows would probably have to implement UWP eventually, too. But I do think Microsoft's velocity of adding useful, desirable features has been slowing down, so it's more plausible for Wine and ReactOS to catch up in the ways that matter.

Honest question, is there any important UWP software? I mostly see it as a gimmick that very few people outside of Microsoft take seriously.

From what I’ve seen the newer UWP descendant WinUI/Windows App SDK is starting to get some traction. Apple uses it for some of its newer Windows software (beta Apple Music client among others), presumably because they want their apps to look at home on modern Windows with the newer more pretty UI widgets. Some indie app devs also use it, and MS has transitioned Power Tools to it.

Wine is also a very old project but only somewhat recently has it become practical and started being taken seriously.

ReactOS is more complex than that, because they can't take any of the shortcuts Wine did, AND they have to implement a kernel that mimics the Windows NT kernel in enough detail so Windows drivers could run unmodified. But then they have the benefit that once there is enough compatibility, ReactOS will be able to run on a vast number of hardware configurations, taking full advantage of said hardware. Unlike Haiku — which still doesn't support any form of video acceleration for example.

There's no organized effort to roll out ReactOS as a first party supported OS on real hardware. I could imagine a future where the EU funds its development to break away from foreign-owned OSes but that's a long shot and they'd probably be more effective just funding development for the Linux based ecosystem.

If it ever comes close to that the Federal government will ban it. They aren't going to run a Russian funded and built OS on government computers, OSS or not.

> "I keep wondering lately what would happen if/when ReactOS becomes mature enough to be usable beyond curious experimentation."

Nothing. ReactOS is a Windows XP / Windows Server 2003 implementation and just about nobody is making Windows XP compatible drivers for current hardware.

they will have GUI setup soon

https://reactos.org/project-news/hermes-belusca-hired-full-t...

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