Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 31st Jan 2006 15:25 UTC, submitted by fsmdave
"Among the many free software projects out there, I think ReactOS is particularly worth some discussion. This is an effort to create a complete, clean room re-implementation of the entire Microsoft Windows NT operating system. Here is why I think this project is important."
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Member since:2005-07-06
A lot of companies have ancient software running on ancient servers. This is unlikely to change in the future. So when you upgrade to Win2010 and your really important app won't run, you can move that app to ReactOS (perhaps running in a virtual machine) instead of having a server running an old unsupported version of windows.
Sure the company who supplied the software should have issued an upgrade to run on Win2010, but they went bankrupt in 2006. Either that or it was an inhouse app written by a guy who quit 6 years ago and no one is really sure where the source code is, or for that matter exactly what it does.
Member since:
2005-12-31
> It will also mean that when or if Microsoft chooses to change or deliberately break
> interfaces to force software to migrate to their newest operating system release
> and also deliberately break their own development environments and platform
> sdk's to force software built from them to require the same, while removing the
> older ones from the marketplace, these same companies will not be forced to follow
> this and have Microsoft dictate and control where their software will run or what
> market their software can be sold into. So ReactOS is important even to proprietary
> software developers today.
In what way does ReactOS make old apps run on the newest version of Windows which otherwise wouldn't run? Say, Company X writes an application that runs on 2k/XP (current ROS target) and will no longer run on a (yet fictional) Windows 2010. Joe User would be unable to use that application when he upgrades to Win2010. How does ReactOS prevent this? (The only thing I could remotely imagine is that Mr User has to upgrade to ReactOS instead of Win2010, but saying "sorry Joe, our software doesn't run with stock Windows" is a good way to lose your customers).
Slightly offtopic, the code audit runs with an amazing speed:
http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php?title=Audit&action=history
- Morin