ReactOS 0.3.16 released | Hacker News Reader

ReactOS 0.3.16 released

reactos.org

157 pointsch_12348 comments

Office 2003 works now too: http://www.reactos.org/node/771

Some screenshots of ReactOS: http://www.reactos.org/screenshots and http://old.reactos.org/en/screenshots.html

It's too bad all the screenshots are of open-source windows ports of stuff, and stuff that's otherwise going to be really well-behaved (ie, not use secret API's)

Notepad++ isn't a windows port, and is in fact so dependent on Windows APIs that there is no Linux version of it.

Check out the second link, and scroll down. A lot of proprietary Win32 application work just fine.

From 3D games like Unreal Tournament to Adobe Photoshop, Screensavers, XEmacs... like in Wine plus apps like CD burning apps and similar that require NT drivers.

As driver support is still an issue on desktop Linux (3D graphics, HD audio, proprietary hardware cards, etc), ReactOS has a great advantage over *nix operating systems.

They're also doing a kickstarter for Thorium Core:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thorium/thorium-core-cl...

"Thorium Core is an attempt to build a commercial operating system and cloud services platform, based on ReactOS, which is an Open Source implementation of the NT architecture seen in modern versions of Windows."

I really like the idea of ReactOS in concept, so I'd pitch in if their Kickstarter wasn't so blatantly what I didn't want. Cloud services? Come on.

Same here. I can't get behind that cloud services idea. If they really wanted to just improve ReactOS and do something like was done with Mesa/OpenGL ( http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-improve-opengl-suppor... ), I'd be happy to pitch in.

Nothing is stopping anyone from only supporting the core ReactOS project. They take bitcoins, paypal, and wire transfers.

http://www.reactos.org/donations

I can see a possible market here, competing with Microsoft's licensing for cloud/virtual desktops. MS licensing is at best confusing, and in some cases quite horribly expensive. And obviously keeping the software open source but charging for cloud services is a relatively straightforward way to monetise free software.

If a non-cloud version comes out as a side effect then that's good for everyone.

So ... is this like Citrix + Windows? Replacing licensing costs of both Windows and Citrix would be a huge cost savings. It also would allow unlimited users.

It says Thorium Core is a commercialization. But ReactOS is open source. So is the cloud services part going to be proprietary? (Thus foiling my idea of a free Citrix replacement.)

It was my understanding that the licensing for windows on "cloud" workloads was actually pretty cheap and straightforward after the introduction of hyper-v -- isn't one licence per cpu socket -- run as many copies/vms as you want? Now for SQL server things can get more expensive...

Not to mention the difference in cost of having any licensing vs having no licensing.

Standard gives you two licensed virtual Windows OSes per two-sockets. Datacenter provides unlimited.

SQL Server's pricing is starting to follow Oracle, despite mocking Oracle's model before. SQL Server has different prices for different types of CPUs.

Ah, yes. I was thinking of Datacenter licensing.

If ReactOS were "ready" right now (i.e., could run 99% of all Windows 7 software unmodified), with all the bad press that Windows 8 gets, it might even have a chance to steal some market share. However, I don't think they can catch up before Microsoft manages to release another "good" version of Windows, and then the game of catch-up will start again.

I hope I'm wrong. I'd really like to see this succeed.

If you believe in technological plateaus ... it's possible that ReactOS has all the time in the world.

weren't they targeting winxp? I think windows 7 would require a lot more work.

http://www.reactos.org/about-reactos

"Free and Open Source replacement for the Microsoft Windows NT® family [...] with its latest iteration being Windows 8"

If ReactOS every became a thing (i.e. more than a hobby exercise) Microsoft would sue them off the planet. I am sure Microsoft has countless patents covering Windows technology.

They got a 50 btc donation in december. ;)

Yep. Microsoft allows WINE and ReactOS to proceed unchallenged because they're aware of the Streisand Effect. If it ever became a legitimate threat to Windows' dominance, they'd be lawyered out of existence lickety-split.

ReactOS has spent a LOT of time and effort remaining in the clear legally. It would be a hell of a lawsuit but after the dust settled, it would be in favour of ReactOS barring a freakish reversal of precedent. They have taken the same approach as Pheonix Technologies used back when they cloned the IBM BIOS and sparked the dawn of the Wintel/IBM Compatible era http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Technologies#Cloning_th...

I'm a WINE contributor so I'm aware of their meticulous legal requirements. It doesn't mean that MS won't go nuclear in the courts. ReactOS or CodeWeavers are small enough that they could easily be killed with litigation alone, regardless of outcome. After years fighting one premise, MS will be ready to go again on another premise, until the little companies that create these products throw in the towel.

Isn't that a real danger in itself though? I mean, "a hell of a lawsuit" can bring plenty of people down in economic despair - regardless of how it would end, litigation could continue for years.

I'm surprised the Chinese government is not sponsoring it.

I just downloaded and installed in a virtualbox VM. It feels ridiculously snappy compared to windows. Runs Firefox with the odd crash. Impressive to see how far it has come but there is still some way to go.

Last time I tried it it ran an old version of Firefox (version 3.something) but if you downloaded Firefox stable it would not even install. I think having a working web browser should be the most important point of the project. Overall I'm a supporter of the idea.

You can install Firefox 26 from the ReactOS Applications Manager. It crashed on first startup but has worked since then for me.

A working web browser is hardly that important. If you just want web you can use any OS, like Linux or ChromeOS. If you want IE 6 for a legacy application that's a different matter.

The browser is just another test case to see if Windows apps will/won't run. The killer feature is the ability to run legacy Windows apps that are not easily replaced on other platforms.

If you're using ReactOS, you don't "just" want web, but you probably also want web. So yes, a browser is important.

I love the idea of ReactOS, but my guess is that, in the current conditions, either it will get nowhere, or it will take an extremely long time to get anywhere significant (that is, not a niche product).

I've followed all the newsletters and it feels like the development it's always a somewhat working rewrite on top of a somewhat working rewrite on top of a somewhat working rewrite.

The way to go, while it appears small, it's the last 10% which is a 200% in practice. It's pretty clear from the development that is's an excessively large project for a small, changing, group of hobby developers.

Obviously, I hope things will change. I'd really like a free Windows XP in virtual environments.

I bet in about 10 years Microsoft will release XP as a free product, without support, kinda like what adobe did with cs2

No. If it wasn't for security issues, that might be a possibility. But Microsoft would not want an inferior product out there giving them a bad name.

Adobe did not release CS2 as a free product.

> I'd really like a free Windows XP in virtual environments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC#Windows_XP_M...

"Windows XP Mode is available free of charge to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate"

I understand this "offer" from Microsoft, or maybe "strategy", but that's not a replacement for an ideally stable ReactOS.

As somebody else pointed out, security is a primary concern.

Once Windows XP support is phased out, the product is gone.

Installing it is going to be a serious security risk, unless very specific cases, e.g. machines disconnected from internet.

Of course, that's not the only reason; Microsoft will stop selling licenses, then what about installing it in VMs on a Linux host?

An O/S is part of an ecosystem. Once it's phased out, if it's closed source, it's dead unless it's taken over by a third party (see O/S 2).

This has always been an admirable project; I just fear that the world has moved on.

A competitive kernel alternative to Windows seemed like a necessity 6 years ago. Today, everyone I know who would be interested in ReactOS is OS agnostic and can exist without any one operating system in particular.

I disagree, the future of windows is why ReactOS is important. For the same reason DosBox is important, to run legacy apps.

10 years from now, how are you going to run those XP apps that aren't compatible with even windows 7, let alone three more cycles of ugprades.

That's what Wine is for; ReactOS borrows a ton of their code. I do wish there were more progress with Wine on Windows for 16-bit apps at least.

Wine can't run Windows device drivers, but that's a pretty narrow use case.

For the people that said things like

"I'd pitch in if their Kickstarter wasn't so blatantly what I didn't want. Cloud services? Come on" "I can't get behind that cloud services idea."

You guys have a really short vision.

The idea of thorium is 2 things: -Making cloud services applications is really not difficult at all. The thing you need is a working os with working network services. The idea is that Thorium would help ReactOS mature as 90% of the hard work, would benefit ReactOS also. -If Thorium becomes reality, the ReactOS people could start providing cloud services. This means steady income. If thorium were to get big enough, they could conceivably keep on going without even needing donations.

Thorium is an excellent idea. Thorium is what ReactOS needs. If the kickstarter gets funded, apparently it won't which is a shame, but if it does, those 120k are easily converted into 240k in some months, by selling cloud services to more people.

Look a little farther than your noses.

Very cool project. You see new Linux distros but this if the first I've heard of someone "forking" off of a Windows system. Potential in the Windows 8 world -> very high.

It's not really a fork in the development sense (they didn't start from Windows code, they completely rewrote it), unless I'm missing something and they did fork GPL/BSD code. They are sharing a lot of libraries with Wine though.

I've been very interested in ReactOS for several years now, as I've wanted to replace WindowsXP on my desktop with something more open and extensible. Unfortunately, I have since upgraded to Windows Vista, Windows 7, and now Windows 8. So I am not sure that ReactOS is going to be a viable option for me anymore.

But now I think that I am not in the target audience of ReactOS at all. But rather, it is intended for businesses which for some reason are stuck using WindowsXP but would like to switch to an open alternative that is still being patched with security updates regularly. This is a reasonable and generous plan, and I applaud the ReactOS team for their work towards this effort.

A review I wrote back in 2006 of ReactOS: https://neosmart.net/blog/2006/reactos-the-next-windows/

The roadmap has changed considerably since then, esp. as there were several major setbacks and snafus pertaining to the legal status of some reverse engineered components. However, neither the appeal nor the readiness of the OS have really evolved much since then.

Is Alex still heading reactos?

If by Alex you mean Alexey, then yes!

These guys have been working at this for almost a decade (maybe longer), and they finally got Office 2003 to work... year of the linux desktop cometh!

Guys, let's be honest here, even the "disastrous" Windows 8 in all of it's horror has sold more copies than OS X has since the very first OS X shipped.

ReactOS isn't going to make any meaningful impact on the average computer user's life.

What does this have to do with Linux?

What's your point, that they've failed at the goal you've made up for them?

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