Submitted by ReactOS, the open source implementation of a Windows XP/2003 compatible operating system, does support now Intel Mac computers with bootcamp installed and Parallels’ virtual machine. Furthermore the new ReactOS roadmap has been published yesterday. Today’s interview features ReactOS developer and former project coordinator, Steven Edwards. Read it all on the ReactOS website.
The blurb is a bit unclear. At first I thought it meant you could install Parallels under ReactOS. However, it actually means ReactOS will run inside of Parallels. Still great, but much less spectacular.
I have wanted that since I bought my Mac.
…hmm the iso. still fails…
Edited 2006-12-06 04:37
The news is about the current trunk, which means ReactOS 0.3.1 (late dec 2006) will have that fixes.
Sorry to say, i think ReactOS is too little, too late.
Within a year or so, most corporations will have migrated to Windows Vista and .net 3.0, and within a couple of years most Windows software will be written for Windows Vista only.
ReactOS’s role might be to provide support for legacy software that is not updated/maintained, and won’t run on Vista. I can’t see ReactOS gaining .net 3.0 support anytime soon.
This ofc goes for Linux also. I cant see Wine getting 3.0 support anything soon either.
Sadly, Microsoft has software creators by the balls with Vista.
Edited 2006-12-06 07:02
Vista is WinNT 6 and base largely on WinNT 5.2
DotNet v3 is “just” DotNet v2 plus WPF, WCF, WWF and WCS.
ReactOS originally aimed for WinNT 3.x back in 1996, then NT4 and moved on to NT5 (Win2k/XP/2k3) in 2004. In 2006, the ReactOS project aims NT5 & NT6 compatibility.
We have already some new Vista-“only” API fucntions in ReactOS. There are plans for DX 10; DX9 is already under development.
ReactOS roadmap: http://www.reactos.org/en/about_roadmap.html
Within a year or so, most corporations will have migrated to Windows Vista and .net 3.0
Make that 2-3 years.
and within a couple of years most Windows software will be written for Windows Vista only.
And make that 5-6 years.
Upgrading systems across a large company is a huge and costly project. And it’s not really done unless there’s really a need to, such as if an important application needs it.
When going from Win98 to WinXP there was huge benefits from doing that. WinXP->Vista just doesn’t offer as much. Not that they won’t upgrade, but I’m guessing most companies aren’t in a hurry, and they’ll be waiting for the first service pack before even considering.
Edited 2006-12-06 09:25
The problem with your statements dear McDuck, is that when Vista arrives, the 10 years+ of previous Windows compatible software won’t disappear from the planet…
There will still be millions of copies of Office 95, 97, XP, 2000, 2003, and 2007 out there that people will be able to run on ReactOS.
There will still be Mozilla Browsers.
There will still be millions of copies of Quicken, and TurboTax and WordPerfect, and tons of other applications that will run.
And ReactOS will allow people like me to take an old computer that I don’t have a Windows License for, load it up with an OS and gift it to someone. And NOT have to get complaints that they can’t buy software for it.
ReactOS will be an incredible asset once it reaches 1.0 status. And if all the naysayers put their energy and time being detractors of ReactOS into supporting it and writing code… we’d probably have a 1.0 version by now.
I’m not a coder. So I send money when I can. And I tell people about it.
ReactOS is a GOOD thing, and the people working on it are amazing.
“There will still be millions of copies of Office 95, 97, XP, 2000, 2003, and 2007 out there that people will be able to run on ReactOS.”
99.999% of which runs on legal copies of Windows which they got when they bought the computer. That’s the problem with ReactOS – ppl who switch from Windows to another OS do so because they want something else than Windows, not because they save money. It’s a sad fact that MS has this kind of market power, but it’s been the way of things for 15+ years and will only get worse, unless Linux gains critical mass on the desktop (which is years away I think, if at all)
“99.999% of which runs on legal copies of Windows which they got when they bought the computer. That’s the problem with ReactOS – ppl who switch from Windows to another OS do so because they want something else than Windows, not because they save money”
I have to disagree…Though I’m not the “average” user, I fit into your qualification of “ppl” <grin>. I am waiting to switch to ReactOS because I want my O.S. to be Windows compatible *and* unobtrusive. I don’t want to have to deal with WGA, WPA, Windows Media installations by default or even IE. I don’t *need* MS to tell me what’s in my best interest to have installed on my computer by default-I’m quite capable of making that decision by myself.
If I had an O.S. that Ran MS software, but was small, lightweight and completely customizeable, you bet I’d switch-in a heartbeat.
FTA:
Intel Mac’s BIOS has a “serial port” bug, it reports that COM1 exist, but no one is there physically.
I was under the impression that Intel Macs don’t use the BIOS at all, but EFI instead. Did I get something wrong here?
http://appleintelfaq.com/#17
Def
Yes and no 🙂
Intel Mac’s do use EFI, however EFI can have a BIOS emulator module, which comes as part of Boot Camp as its needed to boot Windows.
Intel Mac’s do use EFI, however EFI can have a BIOS emulator module, which comes as part of Boot Camp as its needed to boot Windows.
Why not make ReactOS able to boot using EFI? Windows still doesn’t do it, so they would have a point against MS.
I can’t see ReactOS gaining .net 3.0 support anytime soon.
Mono already have plans for .Net 3.0. I guess ReactOS with Mono could do even better than Windows. And don’t ditch on ReactOS utility. WinXP can’t run all Win9X apps, but nothing stop you from patching ReactOS the way to make them work. So again with Vista, I guest that it will not run all Win32 apps, and once Windows XP lifetime will end, ReactOS will be there. Just think about FreeDOS and it’s success in industrial area. I see more a Windows killer in ReactOS than Linux.
Again, my biggest whish for ReactOS, is a hybrid GDI/X windowing system. This mean I could run KDE instead of the Explorer replacement and still run Windows apps natively
And I don’t know if this could be possible but could the GDI be accelerated using OpenGL as XGL is?
my biggest whish for ReactOS, is a hybrid GDI/X windowing system. This mean I could run KDE instead of the Explorer replacement and still run Windows apps natively
KDE are porting their shell to Windows. ReactOS will also be able to run this shell when it’s API’s are complete enough. When this will be, should be easier to estimate once KDE have released a stable port and it is tested on ROS.
in the long run this could be Windows biggest competitor. will MS be ahead with vista? of course. But it will be much easier to get people to try this than linux or mac. everyone’s software would work. all those windows developers? they would know this. Windows without activation and forced upgrades. yeah I think lots of people would go for this.