Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 18th Jan 2010 16:06 UTC, submitted by fireball
The ReactOS project aims to be an open source Windows NT-compatible operating system which can run Windows applications and utilise Windows drivers. Obviously, this is quite a daunting task, and as such, progress has been relatively slow. As a result, project coordinator and kernel developer Aleksey Bragin has proposed a rather drastic solution.
Thread beginning with comment 404641
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[2]: So does this run on top of Linux?
by joshv on Mon 18th Jan 2010 18:21
in reply to "RE: So does this run on top of Linux?"
Member since:2006-03-18
RE[3]: So does this run on top of Linux?
by Bill Shooter of Bul on Mon 18th Jan 2010 18:51
in reply to "RE[2]: So does this run on top of Linux?"
Member since:2006-07-14
Yeah... Me too. My guess is that when they decided they weren't going to do this back in 99 or so, wine wasn't nearly as complete as it is now. So it wasn't obvious that they should focus on leveraging the wine source as heavily, instead of writing one more in tune with their development goals.
RE[3]: So does this run on top of Linux?
by robojerk on Mon 18th Jan 2010 19:02
in reply to "RE[2]: So does this run on top of Linux?"
Member since:2006-01-10
RE[3]: So does this run on top of Linux?
by Laurence on Mon 18th Jan 2010 22:25
in reply to "RE[2]: So does this run on top of Linux?"
Member since:2007-03-26
Ok, so this is a port of the Wine Win32 user land to run on top of the ReactOS kernel? Correct? If so, I have to admit I pretty much thought that's what ReactOS was already.
WINE and ReactOS shared code and developers, but ReactOS was never really a port of WINE.
There's much much more to Windows than Win32 and NT kernel - just like there is more to ReactOS than it's Win32 calls and it's kernel.
However, up until today, I must admit I thought ReactOS had heavier influences from WINE too.
Edited 2010-01-18 22:27 UTC
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/20/13 6:17 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.More News »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2007-03-26
Wine basically converts Win32 into Linux system calls, but I didn't see Linux in the architectural diagram. I am guessing though there has to be a Linux kernel underneath it all.
So what this amounts to is that emulating the internals of the modern Win32 OS is a lost cause. Whereas emulating the Win 32 API on top of another OS (Linux) is a proven approach that supports something like 13k windows apps.
I think you're getting a little confused there.
ReactOS is a complete OS from the ground up. The problem Aleksey Bragin mentioned was specifically with ReactOS's implementation of it's Win32 calls.
So what Aleksey Bragin is suggesting is by using WINEs Win32 code (baring in mind that WINE has a larger and more complete development) in place of the existing ReactOS Win32 so you have WINEs app compatibility.
So it doesn't really matter what kernel is running as this is purely user space tools.
(case in point being the numerous non-Linux kernel systems that WINEs been ported to: from *BSD and Solaris ports to 'Crossover' for the Mac).
AFAIK drivers wouldn't use Win32. Win32 isn't generally used that low-level. It's more a graphical toolkit with knobs on.
That said - it's been a while since I've used Win32 so I maybe forgetting some details.
However Aleksey Bragin seems to hint that drivers were a non-issue:
ARWINSS has many advantages, not in the least the fact that it would bring Wine's level of application support to ReactOS: 13495 applications from the Win database, as well as a theoretical number of applications Wine can't run due to hardware issues.