The latest ReactOS newsletter is out. "Reactions have varied in regard to 0.3.1, though one response was consistent. The difficulty in getting it to work on real hardware. As mentioned many times, 0.3.1 was branched in the middle of a kernel rewrite."
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Member since:2006-07-15
>OK sure, ReactOS is getting to the stage that major >jumps have to be done to go to the next stage of >it's evolution (for lack of a better word) and many >of other OS's have had to go though the same thing, >but why not hang back for a few more weeks until >this was sorted before committing?
The release was already about two months late, and most critical bugs had been fixed. The 0.3.1 branch was also getting old in relation to trunk, so further delays would have caused even more merging issues between the two.
>Just one question to anyone out there who might >know: Is there a general rule that nothing can be >taken from the Linux / BSD code base?
Absolutely not. From what I understand, ReactOS' (and windows' as well) TCP/IP implementation is borrowed from FreeBSD. Basically, ReactOS's audio architecture has to be compatible with windows's, which linux or BSD is not.
(Anyone care to correct the numerous technical errors I've no doubt made? :p)
Edited 2007-03-19 01:34
Member since:2005-07-06
NT's TCP/IP stack is not borrowed from FreeBSD's. It had at one point a BSD-derived stack, and still ships with some BSD-derived tools, but the stack was rewritten for NT 3.5.
EDIT: Linky - http://www.kuro5hin.org/?op=displaystory;sid=2001/6/19/05641/7357
Edited 2007-03-19 02:44
Member since:2005-07-09
> I can't see why they would release something that just
> does not work.
I'm sure they test as much as they can, but mistakes happen. Remember, even in the tightly controlled
Linux kernel process, Linux has made "brown paper bag" releases to fix obvious critical bugs. ReactOS
isn't used on any production system, so although I'm guessing it did work on the hardware/test cases
they tested on before the release, I'd imagine that things fall through the cracks since the tests
aren't as thorough as a production system. They don't need to be (yet at least).
Member since:
2006-04-22
While I appreciate the fact that they are in the middle of a kernel re-write, I can't see why they would release something that just does not work.
OK sure, ReactOS is getting to the stage that major jumps have to be done to go to the next stage of it's evolution (for lack of a better word) and many of other OS's have had to go though the same thing, but why not hang back for a few more weeks until this was sorted before committing?
Enough of me moaning, well done all ReactOS devs out there, for not only keeping this going but looking far into the future. Vista compatibility may be a few years off yet but at least your roadmap looks very good and everyone has a common goal.
Just one question to anyone out there who might know: Is there a general rule that nothing can be taken from the Linux / BSD code base? The reason I ask is that with the Audio issue it seems to me that you could take one of the well tested and mature sound engines from Linux and integrate that to give you sound support. You could then just put in wrappers around it to make it compatible with ReactX and DirectSound (or your take on that standard). Just a thought.