ReactOS 0.3.0 RC1 has been released. Get it from the download page; the changelog doesn't seem up yet, so no information on any improvements. As for the code audit, it is at 90.5% complete. Read the associated Wiki page for more information.
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Member since:
2006-05-02
Comparing Windows (TM) and ReactOS or Wine shows clearly that free and open source software can't compete with proprietary software in any way. There are a lot of features on Microsoft (TM) Windows (TM) that are not supported by either ReactOS or Wine, and it is doubtful we'll ever see them implemented:
- Digital Rights Management
Because of this shortcoming, there's no way to restrict usage of the contents on your hard disk.
- Product Activation
You can't e.g. use your Microsoft (TM) Windows (TM) activation key to activate your copies of ReactOS and Wine as well, since neither of them provides a Product Activation feature.
- WinFS
Store your data as a searchable database. Although it is not yet supported by Microsoft (TM) Windows (TM) as well, it will be implemented in Windows (TM) before either ReactOS or Wine.
I don't get why people still believe in free and open source software.
Def
Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
Def and Detlef Niehof are not registered trademarks of Detlef Niehof.
Member since:2005-07-07
it's a bit unfair to say these things, isn't it?
first, Reactos is very new, and developed by just a few people. compare this to MS Windows, being worked on since what, 1990? and by how many fulltime engineers?
second, reactos is just copying windows. and as windows doesn't give much info about itself, they have to spend a lot of time figuring out how windows does stuff.
Compare this to linux, in serious development since before 2000 by several thousands of developers.
Compare apples to apples, and I think you can say the Linux Kernel is much more advanced than the current Windows Kernel.
As a DE and development environment, KDE is generally equal or ahead of Windows.
And well, Windows lacks most of the userland apps most linux distributions offer in the form of the GNU tools, so I guess that's another free software win.
OK, MS has some things better. MS Office, for example, kicks the free software offerings' asses. OO.o is too slow, and due to bad design very hard to develop for. Koffice would be easier to extend and turn into serious competition for MS Office, but apparently it's not sexy enough, big company's prefer throwing money in the black hole OO.o is.
Another plus for MS is the huge amount of apps available, tough that's not their accomplishment. And many of these apps have free and almost-as-good equivalents (apps like Kalzium, free on linux, are very expensive on windows...).
And of course, MS keeps its specifications closed and mangles many open protocols, so it is hard for non-microsoft users to interact with MS' products. Actually I would say that's a big no-no, but many people seem to see it as an advantage ("MS word can open MS word documents, OO.o cannot" - while OO does a nice job, and MS word is unable to open ODF files - while THAT is a official ISO standard file format!).
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Microsoft Windows 1.0: Released 1985
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/WinHistoryDesktop.mspx
Linux began development in 1991
http://www.linux10.org/history/
KDE was founded in 1996
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Using_KDE_:_History_of_KDE
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It can't run Apache yet, but it can run the TinyWeb server as done by someone in this thread on the forums http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2062 which is promising. But as ReactOS is getting better everyday it should be able to run Apache soon.
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2005-07-06
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2005-07-09
I am really glad that they are close to being done with their audit. It was truly disheartening when I heard about the alleged plagiarism of Microsoft code. I wish I had a spare machine accessible right now so I could give this a shot. I guess I will wait for the final release of 0.4 as it would give me a decent enough timeframe to put together a play machine and try out this wonderful alternative OS! Thanks for all the hard work ReactOS devs!
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2006-05-30
C'mon Guys, don't vote him down, ...
If he complies, that DRM, Product Activation and WinFS are the reasons not to use FOSS, then this is to be meant ironical, isn't it ?
:-)
@Article:
I personaly think that ReactOS even if it is a nice example of what can be done, is some how a waste of time and skill. In my opinion creating another free Operating System isn't the right way, this guys seem to be really good in what they are doing, so I would like to them helping the WINE team or creating a driver compatiblity layer to run _any_ Windows driver on Linux ....
Just my 2 € cents...
Member since:2005-07-06
I strongly agree. Please, vote him up, he did not deserve a -3. In fact, it was hilarious, too bad some people don't have a sense of humor.
About the WINE part, I understood that there is a lot of collaboration. A Windows Win32 compatible OS with a lot of GNU / FOSS software could be perfect to get people away from the enslavement of Evil;-)
Member since:2006-05-02
Please, vote him up, he did not deserve a -3. In fact, it was hilarious, too bad some people don't have a sense of humor.
Thanks for that. Sure it was a joke, although maybe not a particularly good one. I really do hope that ReactOS will take off, of course, but I guess that was very obvious from my first post.
Def
Member since:2005-10-13
Member since:2006-04-18
Re: "a waste of time" statement the following questions:
1. Why would I buy a proprietary O.S. that I have to be 1 copy for each machine when I could get an open source version I could copy to *any* computer in my household?
2. Why would I want MS to dictate to me how I use my legal freedom with MP3, etc. I don't have Sony breathing down my back everytime I record a TV show on my VCR?
3. Why would I want WinFS when there is/will be better implementations of a FS than WinFS-ReactOS, being an Open source project can/will be able to take advantage of such a filesystem?
Making a (possibibly) better functioning/more versatile version of Windows than windows? Doesn't sound like a wast of time to me
Just my $.02 ;-)
Edited 2006-06-20 14:37
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2005-09-14
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Actually, Wine is no longer accepting code from ReactOS due specifically to fears of legal issues from reverse engineering. They seem to believe that the only truly safe way RE method is black-box, and even clean-rom RE is out. :/
Anyway, I believe code is still flowing the other way, and good luck to ReactOS!
Member since:
2006-01-31
Member since:2005-12-31
> Looks like another SCO-like FUD ? 
No, it was an anti-FUD measure. Nobody said that copyrighted code was copied. Instead, by the audit the team made sure that nobody who ever looked at copyrighted code writes portions of the according ReactOS code. This is called clean-room reverse engineering and is done because that way it's easier to prove that no copyrighted code made it into the project, just in case someone tried to sue them for it.
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2006-01-28
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Screenshots of many apps:
http://www.reactos.org/?page=screenshots
Compatibility Database:
http://www.reactos.org/support/
MS Office 95 and OpenOffice 1.x work.
I don't know about LispWorks, Skype, or Filemaker although I know for sure that Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, Firefox, SeaMonkey, Adobe Photoshop 3-5, Paint Shop Pro 4, MS Visual Basic 6, DOSBox, IrfanView and a lot of more work.
Member since:
2005-10-22
I voted it up at -5.
I was thinking that I'd try to explain it was sarcasm, and should not be modded down. I decided not to, but glad some others took the initiative. I guess some people just glance at things and don't really read.
Back on topic, I'm glad for reactos. I just downloaded the live cd the other day,and now they release a new one. Good thing it's so small.
The wiki seams a little sparse. I wonder how far drivers/driver compatibility have come.
I remember first hearing about this 2 years ago when captive NTFS came out, I thought it was a bad idea, but I'm all for it now.
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2006-06-19
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2005-07-06
One of the ReactOS developers attempted a port to Xen 3.0 whilst it was still in heavy development (and changing rapidly) but I think he gave up because of API churn in Xen, and because he had other things to do in ReactOS-land.
Hopefully the port will be revived at some point, the code would be at least partially portable to the latest Xen.
Also, I think it'd be worth investigating using ReactOS virtual machines to run Windows drivers and export those devices back to Linux.
Member since:
2005-08-13
I think they should do something with GUI bugs. Is it really so hard to implement GDI and create good controls? One is too much space between items on menubar. Fonts are at wrong positions. There are problems with sizes of components. It all looks very bad (for me). I think, those are bugs which already appeared in Wine.
Does ReactOS use Windows drivers?
Member since:2006-01-26
Several GUI glitches will get fixed before 0.3.0 release (wine code regression, etc.).
"ReactOS aims to achieve complete binary compatibility with both applications and device drivers meant for NT and XP operating systems, by using a similar architecture and providing a complete and equivalent public interface."
ReactOS come with several open source standard driver.
Member since:
2005-09-15
I hope this time we'll get a device manager and some driver compatibilities... so we could use current Windows driver with it. I'd like to see some skinning possibilities too (ie www.crystalxp.net) and it could give some serious trouble over to MS. Imagine if it ever get to work with Active Directory, now they would kick MS bµtt...
Member since:2006-01-26
http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Supported_Hardware
The Plug&Play support has been improved and there is a simple device manager and service manager in ReactOS 0.3 RC1.
Member since:
2005-11-11
You need it or it kills any new OS.
There are alot of new os' that have cool features but are worthless because they don't have drivers.
We need a NEW way to write drivers like Scitech does.
Like some program that actually compiles specs into code!!!!!
We need alternative to X.org windows.
DirectFB ? Seems like they don't have enough drivers. Writing drivers is a bitch. We need alternatives. Scitech gets this.
Member since:2005-12-31
> We need a NEW way to write drivers like Scitech does.
> Like some program that actually compiles specs into code!!!!!
The problem is how to write down specs in a formal, yet OS-agnostic way. I'm not saying it's impossible (I have considered experimenting a bit in that direction but didn't due to lack of time), but it's hard. Guess I'll give it a try when the summer exams are over
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2006-05-10
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2005-07-07
sure, windows 1.0 in 1985. but microsoft already had a bit more than 1 person working on it, isn't it? Same with KDE - Linux and KDE started way more slowly, and still have to work with much less manhours compared to Windows. well, maybe that's not true for Linux vs the Windows kernel...
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2005-10-01
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2005-07-07