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Comment by RexRollman | Hacker News Reader

I love the idea of ReactOS but it is moving so slowly that I don't see how they can ever be a relevant alternative to Windows. Is my impression wrong?

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That was my impression in 2011 already. Back then I wrote a blog post (in my then-much-worse English) with, admittedly, a bit of Microsoft hatred[1]. However, most of the points I mention are still valid, I think. Of course there have been new releases since 2011, but nothing exactly groundbreaking, at least in the eye of a casual follower like me. Relatively recently, they have run a IndieGoGo campaign and have made this[2], but to be honest (and I admit I haven't looked very deep), as a first impression, it seems it is more the result of web development, design and social media work, than work on the hard part, i.e. the operating system itself. It'd be nice if someone could clarify whether that's really the case.

As others have mentioned, perhaps the idea is to offer support for legacy software on newer hardware, when that software doesn't need everything Windows has to offer... but I'm not sure how big is the audience for that, if one takes into account that some of the need is fulfilled by running Windows XP in a VM, using Microsoft's own tools for legacy compatibility ("compatibility mode" has solved all the compatibility problems I've had so far, but then again, I'm not a heavy user of such functionality), or running XP on real hardware (isolated and where applicable; it's not like Windows XP won't run on modern hardware, except possibly due to UEFI, or the like, and in that case I doubt ReactOS is of much help either).

[1] http://gbl08ma.com/reactos-will-they-ever-get-somewhere/

[2] http://community.reactos.org/

It is nice to see that ReactOS are still developing, but I think that their time to make a big impression was 7 years ago. The world has moved on from being a Microsoft-centric place.

Perhaps if the Chinese or Russians decided to use it as an alternative OS, it would have worked?

Considering the swath of (mostly pirated) XP installs still floating around China[1], I wonder if many of them would be willing to try this instead. Most of their apps should run just fine too.

[1] http://www.pcworld.com/article/2103680/chinas-windows-xp-use...

> Relatively recently, they have run a IndieGoGo campaign and have made this[2], but to be honest (and I admit I haven't looked very deep), as a first impression, it seems it is more the result of web development, design and social media work, than work on the hard part, i.e. the operating system itself. It'd be nice if someone could clarify whether that's really the case.

I think they made that just to convince people to give them money which is so desperately needed for development. Probably because they previously made a Kickstarter which failed to meet its goals.

What ReactOS needs is some large business to sponsor its development.

Apart from being able to run legacy software, wouldn't it being open-source be of value? I know several people who use Windows because they need the Windows-only software (new or old). With ReactOS they would be able to use those applications with an open-source OS. (Though the pros and cons of open-source can be a separate, credible discussion).

The problem is that the development seems to go too slowly to be something more than a curiosity. It looks outdated and cannot replace Windows in a worplace for the moment and it seems like it will be like that forever. I really want this to succeed but I do not think it will.

I don't think the goal is to be an alternative to Windows. There are many situations where you might want to run Windows apps but don't need everything Windows has to offer. Like others have mentioned, supporting legacy apps is one example of this. There is also research value in having a Windows-compatible OS which is open source.

Which is why we have WINE. There's no reason for ReactOS to exist, especially considering the speed at which it develops.

WINE and ReactOS have been known to share code, in both directions. It's not a zero-sum game.

There are some legacy industrial software we had to keep (for cost reasons) that run on ReactOS with little to no configuration changes that completely break in WINE or run glacially slow on compatibility mode on Windows 7.

So how does wine handles Windows drivers?

Honestly I was thinking the same. I've heard of this project years ago, but today it's only still reading NTFS volumes? For a project attempting to re-implement Windows?

I'm also curious about the two Program Files folders I see, identically named in the same folder.

My understanding is that NTFS support is fairly low on the priority chain; most windows features work just fine with FAT. I booted ReactOS into a VM a few months ago, and it ran many programs just fine out of the box, so it's come a long way since the previous time I tried it.

It's taken a long time for Linux to support NTFS fully as well. Not surprisingly, ReactOS has taken some time also. I think that's fair enough, unless you particularly enjoy filesystem corruption.

Could someone explain why this is a particularly difficult technical problem?

I think from the book "Show Stopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft" by G. Pascal Zachary he mentions that NTFS was developed by an intern for the Microsoft PC system, on hardware that wasn't entirely finished, so, inexperienced file system developer + raw unbaked hardware + time pressures. This is going on an old memory, I haven't read that book since the late 90's.

Also throw in the fact that its proprietary and there is no specification or official test suite that I'm aware of outside of Microsoft.

The second one should be Program Files (x86). Perhaps the (x86) part is wrapped to a third line and not visible due to another window on top. Or perhaps the ReactOS Explorer shell's UI just cuts off the (x86) part (incorrectly). Probably not an issue in the NTFS implementation.

I believe the idea is to provide an alternative to older versions of Windows. There's legacy apps running on top of those. Open source Windows compatible OS with support for modern hardware might be interesting.

I would be so happy if I could just get a bug-free open-source NT4. While ReactOS will probably never be a competitor to the most current Windows, surely it will catch up to NT4, given enough time.

While it might be true that ReactOS moves slowly, I love the fact that it's still moving. In the age of Windows 10, OS X and impending mobile domination, there are still people who care about reimplementing Windows NT. I don't know if there are many users out there, but even if there is a single one, working on ReactOS must be gratifying for its developers.

Windows 10 is still a "Windows NT", given the fact that it has an NT kernel.

I feel the exact same. It feels as though ReactOS, if it is ever released, will serve a similar function FreeDOS[1]. When I first stumbled upon the project, I had really high hopes for it but the development team hasn't made up any ground. They're unable to implement features faster than Microsoft is producing new iterations of their system (and with it, new or updated features). If it ever sees the light of day, I would give it a try but until I see more progress I think I will stick with something I can use now.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeDOS

IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

NTFS support will NOT be included into the upcoming 0.3.17 release. As this support is a bit raw.

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