ReactOS 0.2.2 RC-1 Available
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
The are running Linux in Qemu on Reactos in VMWare on Windows!
when i first heard about react os years ago, i was pretty sure, that this project won’t survive very long. i was sure, that the people behind the project would drop the efforts in creating such a thing, soon.
now as years passed by react os has evolved into a very impressive project. i can only say: very good work, keep it on!
has anyone been able to steam video using winamp?
Does ReactOS follow the concept of MorphOS in sandboxing environments in boxes (in MorphOS, the A/BOX for Amiga apps and the upcoming Q/BOX for it’s own programs)?
From the website:
The Windows NT architecture allows for subsystems, as does the ReactOS architecture. A subsystem is an implementation of the APIs of another operating system, allowing ReactOS to run applications from other systems. We are already looking at subsystems for: Java, OS/2 and DOS and possibly others in the future.
what???
Take a close look.
http://reactos-j.sourceforge.jp/up/img/014.png
Have a look, what they write about Abiword:
http://www.reactos.com/en/content/view/full/2951
Here the text (don’t know, who have written it):
“I’m currently trying to get AbiWord to work properly
AbiWord 2.0.5 installs on ReactOS. There are still some visual problems left, but those problems don’t affect the functionality of the installer.
It also starts up and runs ok for simple tasks. See the screenshot. Lots of issues remain, like with the “Help” menu (ReactOS will append more and more menu items each time you open the “Help” menu). The font selection dialog needs to be improved, etc.
The issue I’m working on at the moment is getting AbiWord to launch when you double-click on a .abw file in Explorer. For this to happen, we need to implement DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) messaging.”
I think, that sounds very good.
That’s from my blog, I’m one of the developers of ReactOS.
Next step after AbiWord is OpenOffice, when that runs satisfactory I guess we’ll take a stab at MS Office.
Lots of other progress and sub-projects too. Networking (although far from finished) is making progress, and perhaps we can get coLinux to run.
ReactOS seems like a really great project. But why all the emphasis on porting Linux apps (GTK, etc. based)? Shouldn’t the focus being on building the Win32 API up to the point where a good portion of Windows apps run without major problems? I’m not sure of the value of running something like coLinux inside ReactOS other than it being ‘neat.’
Well the idea of CoLinux give you two things.
1. You can run almost any Linux app you want. This is good of you are Windows user that wants to move to ReactOS but a application you need does not work quite right yet. As a short term solution you might be able to find a Linux app that would work for you.
2. If you are a Linux user than needs a Windows driver because you have a drain-bamaged hardware vendor that wont make a Linux driver. You could run the ReactOS kernel and CoLinux to support your hardware.
Since when are those GTK+ apps?
They use GTK+ on Linux, that all. On windows they are native apps.
Shouldn’t the focus being on building the Win32 API up to the point where a good portion of Windows apps run without major problems?
I believe that they are planning on useing WINE for their Windows API implementation as WINE is relatively complete. I think that the ReactOS developers are focusing mostly on the core NT-like OS components.
Saying we use WINE gives people the wrong idea. We use certain shared libraries adapted from WINE and share some of the same applications. WINE and ReactOS work very closely together but they operate very differntly on Linux vs ReactOS. The WINE project has even adopted quite a few applications from ReactOS such as the registry editor and taskmanager.
As for GTK and other libs, these already work on top of a Windows right now so at some point ReactOS needs to make them work. There is Gaim, GIMP and quite a few other Linux applications making their way to Windows. Getting these apps to run on ReactOS improves other application support all around.
The next big apps we are working on are Mozilla, OpenOffice and Microsoft Office.
The reason we’re concentrating on things like AbiWord, OpenOffice, Mozilla etc. are that the source of these apps is available. It’s much easier to make something run if you have the source.
By making OSS apps run we improve the whole ReactOS to the point that only small fixes need to be made to get commercial apps to run.
Is ReactOS binary compatible with windows?
Very nice project ReactOS! It’s the first time I looked a bit deeper into it, looks very promising .
good luck and keep up the good work
Yes, that’s the whole point of the project. We aim for binary compatibility with both apps and drivers. Ofcourse, we’re a long way from achieving 100% compatibility, but the first apps (and drivers) start to work.
That wuld be very interesting thing, from my point of view.
Basically, is reactOS a full OS? Can I instal it in an empty partition and then boot off it.
Some third-party drivers work, but most don’t work yet. Things do improve steadily in this area though.
It is indeed a full OS. The setup is much like the NT4 setup. You boot off a CD, create a partition and format it (if needed) and install ReactOS plus it’s boot loader (FreeLdr) in it.
Will it have an Unix-like subsystem?
I belive they are tryong to use Colinux as a POSIX subsystem. Hopfully there will also be a DOS subsystem and possibly a OS/2 one.
You can download the ISO from the http://www.reactos.com web site (and yes, you can boot it. Just follow the instructions)
I am waiting for a stable version, ok, it won’t be on some time, but I will use it for sure.
Imagine a stable version of an open source clone of windows, and the modifications and programs you could make to it to your taste…
Eugenia don’t you think its time ROS got its own Icon? They use that little atom with spirals. http://www.reactos.com