ReactOS just released version 0.3.0 RC3 of their Windows compatible operating system. Their code audit is now 94.3% complete. You can get it from their download page.
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Member since:2006-05-29
Member since:2006-01-16
Nobody is going to liberate us from Microsoft. They are so entrenched there is just no way they are going away. Look at IBM, it was "The Evil Empire" once, MS pulled some of its teeth but couldn't kill it.
What interests me more is what niche will Reactos use to get into the enterprise? With Linux it was LAMP and similar web server setups. My best guess is file server of some sort.
Member since:2006-04-17
No way would it replace Linux+Samba as a fileserver /
AD server.
Look at the amount of resources being poured into Linux,
and the amount of work required in samba to implement a
compatible server.
No, a reimplemented NT really has no use in the server
space. As a client there should definitely be a niche,
though. Although I'll wager MS will step up efforts to
hamper this kind of thing like they do successfully with
AD/CIFS against samba.
Look at vista, with increasing requirements for HW 3d
acceleration. Now consider that 3d drivers are closed
source, and that both nv and ati completely closed up
sources and specs after getting xbox contracts.
Member since:2006-04-21
You're right, however IBM is not the overbearing, dominating beast it once was. Whilst I would dearly love to see Microsoft disappear forever tomorrow (as long as no actual deaths were involved, of course), I'd consider it a job well done if it were run out of the server market completely and had its desktop marketshare (in markets where its current marketshare is over 90%) reduced to 50%. That is much more doable.
Member since:2005-07-18
Nobody is going to liberate us from Microsoft. They are so entrenched there is just no way they are going away.
I hadn't really thought of it in quite those terms. But what a thought!
I'm not so sure that liberation isn't possible. The one thing that GNU/Linux doesn't offer (and definitely doesn't want to offer) is a be a "works just like Windows" replacement for Windows. If ReactOS can ever get to the point where 99% of Windows applications run with no significant hickups, I am sure they will capture a fair percentage of Windows users, even if they offer nothing special extra. (And we know that security will be better, so there is a built-in extra already.)
There are plenty of people that really want to switch to an alternative OS, but are afraid, or think they don't have the time to learn to use it. But if they know they already have all the skills they need, the biggest roadblock to switching is removed.
Member since:
2006-04-21
Maybe I just took it the wrong way. To be clear, I have no problem with an Open Source Windows OS; in fact, despite my doubts about the quality of the platform, if an alternative Windows-like OS liberates us from Microsoft, (a company I consider to be only one or two steps away from the lowest of the low), then, whether open- or legal, closed-source, I welcome that alternative.
Edited 2006-08-21 21:03