What is Reddit's opinion of
ReactOS?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
84 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
I've been following the ReactOS project for over a decade.
A few misconceptions and points to clean up:
- It is not a Linux/other *nix distro with Wine on top. It's an entirely different kernel.
- The kernel isn't necessarily based on the NT kernel, it just exposes the same API.
- It's not using Wine to run Windows applications, or any kind of compatibility layer. It runs Windows applications natively, along with Windows drivers.
- Only wine userspace libraries are used. These aren't dependent on the actual platform (you could run these in Windows if you wanted).
It started off trying to match NT4 for functionality, and that bar has steadily moved up. Right now the state is that if the application you want to run can work in Windows 2000 it's probably fine, and lots of XP applications work.
In terms of gaming, don't expect much. ReactX (The DirectX implementation) is pretty early stages. It's based largely on the DirectX -> OpenGL wrapper that Wine uses to run games on Linux. Very few GPU drivers actually work except for a handful of older cards with older drivers.
Some people have gotten OpenGL 3D working (With GLQuake) using nVidia drivers. But that's pretty much the peak of what it can do in that respect.
List of working games - You get Quake, C&C Red Alert, and Sim City. What more do you need? The interesting one on that list is 'Banished' which is a comparatively recent game, using the OpenGL renderer.
Hi, after reading the official wiki manual https://www.reactos.org/wiki/VirtualBox and trying many times, I managed to get Audio, Ethernet and Graphics drivers to work. Use the following configurations:
- Operating system: Windows Server 2003 (32bit)
- System Memory: 128 mib
- Video Memory: 32 mib (and "Enable 2D Video Acceleration")
- Storage Controller: IDE or SATA
- Ethernet adapter type: PCnet-fast III
- Audio controller: ICH AC97
After installing Reactos using the "Boot CD", Use virtualbox Guest additions CD to get Ethernet and Video drivers to work.
And for Audio, just do the wiki instructions:
Download the Intel AC 97 driver from ReactOS Application Manager or download it from here: https://svn.reactos.org/packages/ac97_vbox.exe
Extract the files to C:\ReactOS\
Restart the virtual machine
Go to Device Manager
If the Audio Device is not identified properly, find the unknown Audio device
Right-Click and choose to Update the Device Driver
Browse to the C:\ReactOS\inf folder as the install location
Update the Audio Device
Reboot ReactOS (you may need to reboot twice)
Install and start your favorite audio player or multimedia application (e.g. Winamp, VLC, MPlayer) Open an audio file and play
You can increase system resources now to try more/bigger apps. Have fun and report any bug you find.
Not a Linux distribution, but ReactOS might interest you: > ReactOS® is a free open source operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows NT® architecture (Windows versions such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 are built on Windows NT architecture). Written completely from scratch, ReactOS is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the UNIX architecture.
>The main goal of the ReactOS® project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This will allow your Windows® applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward. The ultimate goal of ReactOS® is to allow you to use it as alternative to Windows® without the need to change software you are used to.
>ReactOS 0.3.16 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.
While I'm not doubting that WINE would benefit, they wouldn't be the main project to see a boost from Windows being open sourced. In fact, I'd say that it wouldn't even guarantee perfect windows application support either, just that it'd make it much easier to get there. Especially since you can already copy DLLs from Windows and ask WINE to use those in place of its own reverse engineered copies.
The project which would benefit the most though would be ReactOS, which does use WINE as part of its core, and part of its existence is that you're just not going to get perfect windows application support through WINE, since there's always going to be some application, usually business related, which is going to need to run in an actual Windows environment, especially if it's driver related, since you then are making kernel calls, and which WINE can get around because most applications really don't need to interact with the kernel itself, but just need some of the support libraries instead, like DirectX, and which it isn't necessarily too difficult to just write wrappers to translate those calls into native ones on other platforms and still retain reasonable performance.
So no, I don't really agree with you on your assessment, but hopefully this helps explain why.
Per come l'ho capita io, si tratta di un'implementazione indipendente delle system call e strati di base di Windows, via Linux (o altri sistemi che mettano a disposizione le syscall POSIX) però. A differenza di ReactOS che invece implementa sul "ferro".
It's still in alpha, but there's ReactOS, an effort to reverse-engineer the Windows NT kernel.
Looks like they've gotten some interesting stuff working so far...
> Because of its relationship to WINE and has a Linux kernel.
ReactOS has a Linux kernel? Not according to the ReactOS Kernel Wiki it doesn't Kernel.
And what is this about ReactOS relationship to WINE? In what way?
This is from an intriguing post from ReactOS that showed up today. They are counting down to something called the (R)evolution. Seeing how their Thorium Core Kickstarter didn't succeed, I wonder what this new announcement will be. Any theories?
From the linked page, to save users from having to click and scroll.
>RosBE is not generally updated for the sake of updating. Testing and releasing a new toolset is a rather lengthy process, e.g. building a reliably working MinGW-hosted compiler is in itself a challenge. Additionally each new RosBE release requires every ROS user to update (we only ever support the latest version). So we tend to be conservative and update in bigger steps. Minor updates only make sense if they solve actual problems related to our code base. > >That means GCC's support status is pretty much irrelevant to RosBE. 4.7.2 is currently the version that builds ROS in a stable manner, thus it is the one used. > >That said, we're of course experimenting with newer tools, as you can see in CORE-11794. The first step is to make trunk successfully compile with the newer version (i.e. without the attached patch). Next (some of) the buildbots are switched over to the newer version for testing, before a new RosBE can finally be released. > >If you're interested in participating in this process, here are some examples of what needs to be done at the current stage: > >* Try new RosBE tools on various *nix flavors and see how well they work. I've updated CORE-11794 to mention the versions I used to make a working iso >* Try to build a working MinGW toolchain that is able to compile ROS, using https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Building_MINGW-w64 as a basis >* Fix some of the new compiler warnings instead of adding -Wno-xxx flags like in my patch >* Run a bootcdregtest against an iso built with the new tools, compare the results to Testman >* Resolve all remaining issues from the previous update, CORE-6970
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJTL8srScQI The elder scrolls V Skyrim in ReactOS 0.4.1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGwKKV1l4Vk HL2 is actually playable on ReactOS with h\w acceleration
https://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10972&start=975#p121704
DooM 3 works in ReactOS 0.4.1
Not reverse engineered, but designed using the published API, and in a Clean Room setting.
Precisely there was a huge scandal in 2006 when someone spread the rumor that someone in the ReactOS team had used disassembled Windows code. This led to a development halt, and a global audit of the project began.
After the audit, submitted code is carefully examined to make sure that no single function is implemented in a non-clean manner.
Here's a quote from the ReactOS audit page:
> #1. A function is deemed to have been implemented in a non-clean manner if > * "unknown" arguments given values > * functions for which there is NO DOCUMENTATION > * functions with no test cases available either in ReactOS or somewhere on the internet > * functions with undocumented magic numbers > * functions with excessive gotos > > NO DOCUMENTATION means it cannot be found on MSDN, Google, sysinternals, osronline, any book published by Microsoft Press or any other publication. > > #2. The following does not count: > * functions of 5 or less lines of code > * functions for which every basic unit corresponds to a clause in the official > * functions which mimic those implemented in other libraries and that work similarly > > #3. Even if the function body is not clean, the prototype can remain.
The results of the audit were that no Windows code was found in ReactOS.
They said it apparently doesn't work in WINE so chances are high that it won't work in ReactOS either. ReactOS is basically Kernel + parts of WINE; both projects even share code.
If only OP would tell us what "old app" they meant. Maybe it just needs a specific workaround to get it working in WINE.
You want this:
The distro packaging model is the killer feature that has me using Linux in the first place. I don't have to spend hours researching a package to know it is safe before installing. If it's in Debian Stable I know I can install anything in the archive without risking security or data loss. I don't have to check dozens of websites every day to see if there are new security vulnerabilities.
Kind of the opposite actually.
Usually non-US companies like Linux because it presents a viable alternative to sending money to a large American multinational corporation.
As a Kubuntu user:
Yes, the game library is tiny compared to what's available on Windows. Having said that, old games work fine with DOSBox, and semi-old games (up 2002 or so) work awesome running in a VM with ReactOS (that's how I replayed The Longest Journey recently).
If you're playing indie games, most release on Linux same-day, or within a very short timeframe. Humble Bundle did a wonderful service in that regard, and started getting a lot of indie titles to take consideration of Linux. Many engines (Unity, UE3, UE4, etc) that most of these games use runs quite well on Linux.
If you're interested in the 'best of the big games' from a few years ago, you're solid. I've been playing Borderlands 2 on Linux since it's release; it's still got an active community.
If you're up for Blizzard games (World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, Hearthstone), they work remarkably well with Wine. So do many, many other games.
As for new triple-A titles... It's getting there. Slowly. A couple high-profile titles have made it over quickly; all the Valve titles, Witcher 2 (3 in the works), Metro: Last Light, etc., were either same-day, or very shortly after.
If you absolutely must play the latest games, right now, Windows is your only option. If you're like me, and don't mind jumping in a few months down the road, Linux is really becoming a good choice.
That's the intent, although I don't know if they have any specific goals as to games. There are some game screenshots in the gallery, I do believe they would like everything that would run on true Windows to run on ReactOS.
From the front page:
ReactOS is a Free - Community - Opensource - Collaborative - Compatible operating system.
Imagine running your favorite Windows applications and drivers in an open-source environment you can trust. That's ReactOS. Not just an Open but also a Free operating system.
BTW a link would have been nice:
Update: Sadly regular Git doesn't work. You can track the issue here if you want: https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-13898 About PowerShell: You could ask the devs on IRC at https://www.reactos.org/irc
You can probably find much more information in the bug tracker example of one of the projects.
ReactOS is an OS that re-implements the Windows APIs, currently targeted to use drivers from XP/Server 2003. Windows XP and Server 2003 are both out of support and there are a lot of drivers that would be nice to use with an OS that gets patches, and the majority of Windows software would run on that.
The developers cooperate closely with the Wine project which also implements Windows APIs but for a different reason.
Its not a Russian product but ReactOS has recently become good enough to run serious programs. It will likely replace many machines that need to run programs that aren't realistically available on Linux yet. The Russian government visibly nodded at ReactOS a few years ago.
Check out ReactOS.
Built from the ground up to be binary compatible with Windows (meaning it can run regular .exe files and .Net programs without 3rd party emulators). It's also fully FLOSS compatible (at least, at the OS level).
> ReactOS is not technically a clone of Microsoft Windows. ReactOS is an operating system that implements the NT architecture and is compatible with Microsoft Windows applications and drivers. The developers involved believe that the NT architecture itself is robust and powerful but are often frustrated by some of Microsoft's business decisions in restricting Windows. As such, they elected to write an NT operating system of their own. For end users, ReactOS' ability to run both Windows programs and drivers provides people with another alternative should they need to replace a Windows installation.
ReactOS is a re-implementation of Windows with the goal of being able to run Windows programs. It started in 1998 (20 years ago), has had over 100 contributors consistently contribute over those 20 years (20 years * 100 people = how many years for 1 person?), and has over 9 million lines of code. That is just 1 aspect of the project as you've described it. Does that put things into perspective?
Thank you for your help. By the time I found this page and saw there eas lots of things missing before server roles. I kindly warned myself like READ THE FUCKING MANUAL. I have just learned about Samba+. I'll have a look at it. Thanks.
This looks really interesting. It appears to be pretty early in the development process, but might be very promising.
From the FAQ:
> Q: Ok..so what's ReactOS?
> A: ReactOS is a free and open source operating system written from scratch. It's design is based on Windows in the same way Linux is based on Unix, however ReactOS is not linux. ReactOS looks and feels like Windows, is able to your run Windows software and your Windows drivers, and is familiar for Windows users.
>that has every good thing about Windows (support for all the Windows executables for example), and eliminates every bad thing (privacy issues for example).
It already exists. It's called windows.
There's a project called ReactOS. Doesn't seem to be getting any traction.
You misinterperated me. Apple is more likely to snoop on you than not, just like Microsoft. The alternative OSes I mentioned include BSD, Linux, GNU-Hurd, and even a binary-equivalent to windows, ReactOS (meaning you can run native windows programs in it, but it isn't windows).
All of these are Open Source, meaning everyone can see the code and can see what it does behind the scenes (if you're educated in programming, which a lot of people are). With operating systems that don't provide the code to themselves, you have no real way of knowing what the OS is doing behind your back.
DuckDuckGo losing their data is a matter of security, and is unfortunate when it happens, but they don't intentionally give away user search data. Google, Bing, Yahoo Search, etc. all do, because advertisers buy that information at a high price in order to target ads at you. Same with the goverment, minus the targeted ads and having to pay money to get the data bit. Sites that you have accounts on that go beyond search are even worse.
Could I use ReactOS to update the BIOS on my notebook? I'd guess that it would be pretty dangerous, but has someone tried to do this?
Edit: Found this forum post from 2008 by one of the devs, saying: "Flashing your BIOS within ReactOS at its current state is a really bad idea. If ReactOS crashes during the flash, it could brick your computer. ReactOS is still alpha stage so it could crash at any time."
I wonder if this is still true after 10 years.
It is clearly stated it is in alpha state, Not recommended for daily use, Even on the project Homepage. Sorry if any inconveniences occurred.
And please if any problem "Hang or BLUE Screen reboot" is reproducible i.e. you can repeat it or it always happens after opening some program, do not hesitate to report the bug as in here, Devs are friendly to community and respond quickly.
To add to AG posts: you can install a program called "Wine" that allows you to run Windows programs in Linux. At times, Wine can be tricky, but it works. There is also an OS called ReactOS that is an open source version of Windows. ReactOS is not Linux, but a binary equivalent of Windows, meaning you can install and use Windows programs.
A couple of objections/notes:
Software patents in general are evil. Copyright protection is far more appropriate.
While the Win32 API has been maintained since before Windows 95, and modern versions of Windows assiduously maintain backwards compatibility with it, the Windows 9x series of operating systems (95, 98, ME) are completely different in many important ways from modern editions Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10).
You may be interested by the ReactOS project, which is an open-source re-implementation of Windows NT.
Most software companies don't last for 20+ years, and it might be difficult to determine who has the source code after several buyouts, bankruptcies, and/or mergers.
Copyrighted works (as opposed to patented inventions) enter the public domain when their copyright expires(currently author's lifetime + 70 years, or 95-120 years for works-for-hire). If this were reduced to 20 years then it would achieve much of your goal, although copyright holders would not be obliged to release the source at all.
I never liked Windows 98 that much. I happened to find your post on /r/all new. So I'm not a typical member of this subreddit.
Anyways the 9x kernel was never that great and the move to NT was more of an improvement than many people realize.
You being 24 you should have had access to more programming opportunities than me and I'm only 30. But I started programming when I was about 14 and I just bought books and read anything I could find online. Plus there's really no better time than to learn now. So just start learning.
Also this project is similar to what you described but based on the NT kernel. https://www.reactos.org
Not sure if we are talking about the same incident, but IIRC, that happened, because Wine and ReactOS share plenty of code (and also share developers), and there were some allegations, of some ReactOS developers using stolen code. They took really seriously this accusations, stopped the development in order to perform a source code review.
This is the best info I could find about it: http://archive09.linux.com/feature/51800, but it is not the article I read, which also had Wine position on the subject and the results of that review. Again, IIRC, it was found that some trickery was going on (some developer was doing shady stuff), and that the Wine project decided to be more careful about ReactOS contributions.
Edit: Just some days ago, this happened, https://www.reactos.org/node/946
Here. ReactOS is a Windows NT clone, that tries to run windows apps natively. The problem is it's as stable as Windows ME in an MRI machine used by your worst user.
I wish it worked, but at the moment i wouldn't use it on a server or anything with importance above paper weight.
​
>I could see it being the future of legacy windows application support.
​
I guess I never said it was better. Just that if I was betting on what OS will be around and patched to run legacy software on a windows XP / 98 in 10 years it won't be windows XP from Microsoft.
​
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS#SecureTo your point though, it's designed at the very least with windows NT security in mind.
​
Interestingly enough, to gain full compatibility ReactOS is in the unique position of having to implement bus and flaws and then fix them.
​
There are some community blogs which indicate that Java 7 support was underway in 2015. https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Tests_for_0.4.0 indicates that the installer works but the application does not. The current release is 0.4.9 so maybe it has improved since then.
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Tests_for_0.4.9 shows that Java 7 is working.
Tam chuj linux na desktopie, zbliża się rok ReactOSa - ~~dwudziestoletniego pożaru w śmietniku, który nadal kurwa coś nie może wyjść z alfy~~ rozwijanego od lat otwartoźródłowego 1:1 odpowiednika Windowsów - na desktopie!
Windows Subsystem for Linux isn't a virtual machine. It runs utils on a translation layer. So if we'd use the GNU-slash notation to pair GNU userspace with a kernel, it's close-ish to GNU/Windows NT.
And then there's ReactOS, née FreeWin.
I'm not sure if they will work in a Virtual Machine, but most of them are not available on GOG. Keep in mind they are games I played and not really critically acclaimed:
- Star Trek Away Team
- Sub Culture (If the installer is not working, use the setup.exe from one of these options)
- Empire of the Ants
- Star Wars Force Commander
- Alien Nations with the Pirates Expansion (the latter is not working with the GOG version and its fairly hard to come by the original version with expansion)
- Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life (not necessarily a great game, still interesting)
- Heavy Gear
- S.W.I.N.E
- Crimson Skies
- Rune
- Project I.G.I
- Glover
- Codename Outbreak (Its a GOG game that doesn't work on modern systems anymore, so you're free to get it to work in a Virtual Machine. Even XP had problems with it)
- Donald Duck: Quack Attack (Going Quackers)
- King of the Road
I also second Interstate, its a really great nostalgia trip, at least for me.
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/WINE
"ReactOS works with the WINE project to share as much programming effort as possible. ReactOS depends on Wine mainly for user mode DLLs. Where appropriate, patches to Wine are also submitted by the development team, and patch contributors are often directed to Wine if it is felt that the patches would benefit them.
However, due to architectural differences arising from Wine targetting the Linux platform, some of their DLLs may not be used on ReactOS without specific modifications. As an example, kernel32.dll and gdi32.dll have to be forked, since the Wine versions effectively redirect calls to the Linux kernel and X server respectively. More recently (November 2009) however a research effort has been made to bring the ReactOS architecture closer to Wine's in order that more of their code can be used without modifications. This is currently being done in the Arwinss branch."
I believe that was a concern early on. especially because the windows nt 4.0 and 2000 source code leaks coincided with some rather quick reactos development. (no comment) but that legal heat has died down and the Oracle vs Google case for reimplementing Java APIs as android sided with google so I think it's pretty much settled that it's ok.
It happened to ReactOS. They had to do a major audit of their source code to prove that it contained no source from the Win2000 sources, nor ideas taken from it.
I see your messy, sort of wonky and at times unreliable with non standard hadware SystemD-dependant almost-non-unix-anymore alternative and i present you the only true alternative to Windows, built upon the same technologies.
I can't find it right now, but here is WineD3D http://adolfintel.com/?p=wined3d/index.frag
You can check NTVDM.DLL from ReactOS for DOS stuff, and progman.exe for Win 3.1 sw.
Extract them from the ISO
For apps soon (wine libs are used in ReactOS, however NT kernel requires less hacks than Wine layer in order to make apps work) however Windows drivers will never be compatible with wine (yet more and more of them already is compatible with ROS at kernel level). Also ROS is being backed by Russian government (and hires developers at the moment)
VM has essentially same problems as single-boot + it is slower. It is not free in any way (nor as beer nor as freedom)
Linux dev community is already big enough, also not everyone loves Unix based OSes. Those two FOSS OSes are disjunct developer-wise (most Linux devs wouldn't spend time working on ROS and vice versa) so having 2 good free systems won't harm anyone, and would only result in more open market :)
A friend of mine told me about ReactOS a few days ago which I'd never heard of. Sounds like it could be pretty cool if it has the same level of compatibility as windows.
But, frankly I like many people really like Linux... so if it could handle gaming as well as Windows I'd leave windows and never look back. It's pretty close, lots of good driver support these days and wine bridges a lot of gaps... but some games just don't play nice in Linux... (I'm looking at you GTAV)
> open source windows
I'd suggest running a Windows VM inside a linux host. Untrusted Windows-only things can be segmented (barring an escape-from-guest-VM vulnerability).
It's possible, but you have to rewrite the whole thing. I have tried in the past to get a Windows 95 shell (last before IE and browseui.dll) running in Windows 10 TP, and I got it working once, but it's very buggy. I have gotten a ReactOS shell to remotely work a few times. (a taskbar and Start menu, but no Explorer windows) With a little work from the developer community, we can probably implement the ROS shell fully, which will add an XP/98 style shell in Win10 while keeping DX12 and other benefits.
I wonder what builds of linux I can get working. I've done ubuntu before. I see that ReactOS has an arm build. Have no idea how I'm supposed to build it on an arm environment though.
Paraphrased for the lazy:
> ReactOS® is [an]... operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows... Written completely from scratch, ReactOS is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the UNIX architecture.
> The main goal... allow your Windows® applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system... The ultimate goal of ReactOS® is to allow you to use it as alternative to Windows® without the need to change software you are used to.
> ReactOS 0.3.17 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.
Not really. They have morphed into this thing called "comunity edition" where you can donate to "push" support for various software and hardware for the upcomming 0.4.0 version. (although, the donation service has finished) I don't see any download link to the comunity edition but there is the older site which has the 0.3.x version still active.
> I think it's too open sourced for me
Well then don't go to linux, you want ReactOS
https://www.reactos.org/ “the ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow you to remove Windows and install ReactOS without the end user noticing the change.”
Or FreeDOS
Or FreeBSD
I suppose you could try running your scripts with 4DOS or FreeDOS's command.com, maybe even ReactOS's cmd.exe, though I never really tried running any complex batch file on these to check the compatibility. There may be other alternative command interpreters.
Or you could try replacing your cmd.exe with a known good copy which you'd get for example by installing another copy of the same version of Windows that you're running in a virtual machine. There are tools to download official .iso files from Microsoft, and you don't need a CD key just to perform an install (you should have a 30 days evaluation period).
With Windows users having no choice but to upgrade to 8 or 10, the only thing I can suggest is to speed the development of the following project by funding it:
I've never used it myself, but there is react os. React is not a Linux distribution, it is it's own os, that aims to reverse engineer Windows and provide binary compatibility with the os from Redmond. Maybe throw that in a VM and see if it works? https://www.reactos.org/
Reactos isnt usb friendly atm; https://www.reactos.org/wiki/LiveUSB
The guy who is making the patches for the usb is very active, you can visit his blog here and download a patched usb version here; http://vgal.ru.com/reactos-0-4-11-2-1/
Source; my previous discussion here; https://www.reddit.com/r/reactos/comments/9vgpu3/is_it_possible_to_install_0410_over_usb_at_all/
Wine is a translation layer from Windows to X and the Linux kernel. ReactOS has neither of those - and so only shares code with Wine in the form of modified libraries.
You can absolutely slap together a stable little OS, in a short time span, by yourself. That's not news anymore because nobody needs a generic new operating system with no software. Stability is boring. Running GCC is interesting but complex. Safely obeying undocumented APIs that weren't safe to begin with is arduous bordering on impossible.
https://www.reactos.org/project-news/reactos-0411-released
Check out the link above. Look at the things they're bringing up as features, and how they describe the functionality. If you think you can deal with a system as questionable, and fragile as that as your main OS, go for it. If you're just going to install it on a side machine, then it'd probably be fun. Otherwise, to me, it looks barely ready for use in a VM.
ZFS is something special. Look it up. I've plugged in multiple USB hard drives of many brands and ages and its plug and play.
Ah so you have the software. Then try running it via WINE, or even ReactOS https://www.reactos.org/
ReactOS? Maybe? It's not Linux but an opensource Windows alternative. It's still in it's alpha stages but it's worth to follow! It's been in the works since 1998!
Here's a link: https://www.reactos.org/
Remember that there is ReactOS (an open source Windows clone) if you want to something that is more of the style of old Windows and will still be supported. It's not for everyone but it is an usable alternative for some situations.
The ability to make Linux distributions has largely replaced making distinct desktop operating systems. That being said, there are still a couple of them. They are Haiku, ReactOS (open-source Windows reimplementation), and pretty much any desktop-focused BSD distro.
I can't find a source for the actual sponsorship, but here are two strong indicators:
https://www.reactos.org/reactos-demonstrated-russian-president-dmitry-medvedev
More reason to use Linux...
However, for the people who are still attached to Window system... check out ReactOS.
ReactOS is a free and open source operating system written from scratch. It can run windows softwares and drivers.
Yes, looks like it. https://github.com/Microsoft/react-native-windows
And even, https://www.reactos.org/
Although, keeps this in mind. It's everywhere doesn't mean it's good. It's like aids, it's everywhere but most people regret getting it.
I'm putting my bet on ReactOS.
It's a FOSS operating system that isn't linux copying windows and slaps a compatibility layer, the goal is to make any windows app run natively on it as close as possible. It's nowhere near stable, but it does a surprising amount of things considering it's a from scratch project.
> Chrome (for now) fully supports Windows XP
Chrome dropped Windows XP support in spring 2016 with the release of Chrome 50. Your dad's Chrome is probably stuck on Chrome 49, which by now has plenty of known security vulnerabilites.
Not to mention vulnerabilities in Windows XP itself... you've at least applied the patch for EternalBlue, right?
If your dad is so attached to Windows XP, you might be better off installing ReactOS for him or some Linux distribution with XP theming and Wine.
> ReactOS
Where were you on the 14th?
https://www.reactos.org/project-news/reactos-048-released
With software specifically leaving NT5 behind, ReactOS is expanding its target to support NT6+ (Vista, Windows 8, Windows 10) software.
Actually, it is Server 2003. Still old, but a bit "newer". They will implement newer stuff as they are going.
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/FAQ#How_about_Windows_Vista.E2.84.A2.2F7_programs_and_drivers.3F
First, ReactOS isn't linux. It also isn't Windows. It's ReactOS.
Now that that is out of the way, it does have a graphics stack, and it should operate the same as windows xp does. You can either use DirectX or OpenGL.
> The DIB Engine (in the graphics subsystem), along with your video card's driver, provide rendering primitives, such as rectangles, lines and BitBlit operations.
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/ReactOS_Explorer
So in the end, if you have the right drivers, software installed, and no other bugs or issues. You can get anything to run under it.
Hah! Google threatens to cut off funding of leftist think tank for criticizing Google. Google's projected "open source" OS for Android met with some skepticism: http://www.popsci.com/google-is-building-new-open-source-operating-system-for-phones-and-computers Here's one to watch: https://www.reactos.org
> Hasznos lenne valamilyen hivatalos "magyar linux" rendszert létrehozni, a hozzá elengedhetetlen, mindennapi munka során szükséges eszközök (word, excel, stb) ingyenes, szabadforrású verzióit fejleszteni, használni.
Kínában csinálják. http://www.kylinos.com.cn/
Oroszországban csinálják Windowszal. https://www.reactos.org/
Én nem szeretném, ha csak a hivatalos, államilag engedélyezett, "biztonságos", Mészáros Lőrinc által fejlesztett szoftvert használhatnám. "Mert az nekem jó" alapon.
The topics you are looking for are computer architecture, operating systems and system programming language like C++.
You might also be interested in https://www.reactos.org/ an open source operating system that aims to be compatible with Windows.
I wish open source software paid more attention to design. But I guess since it's primary users are developers themselves, nobody cares that much.
There's blender, inkscape, gimp - all of these do 90% of what their prime commercial competitors do (maya, photoshop etc.) but fall behind enormously on design and so they never take off.
I'm all for kicking microsoft's products. I even tried ReactOS, a free DOS based OS trying to replace windows. But then it gives us Windows 95 UI. Come on. Same with Tails OS.
I could list out dozens of other FOSS I've tried and uninstalled. If open source software just followed, say material design specs, we could put a real dent in commercial software sales.
Why would they even want to move on from wine? Wine and it's staging patches allow the reactos devs to worry about the core of their project.
It also seems they've been moving toward working even more closely with wine.
In that case, your best option is to run a windows vm on your linux host, for the programs that cannot run on linux (and you can't find decent alternatives).
You will find ReactOS really interesting. It isn't linux but they aim to achieve what you want, perfect binary compatibility with windows. The project is quite new though.
I have never actually tried it, and it depends on which emulator you're using, but try ReactOS - It's a Windows clone which is dummed down a bit, so it might run faster than Windows itself. It's also free, so you don't have to worry about licensing, and it runs Windows applications natively, so you don't have to worry about a WINE running.
Note that ReactOS can run a lot of Windows applications and device drivers. It is possible than in the next 10-20 years the Windows ecosystem will be able to actually run on a non-Microsoft-controlled operating system.
It is definitely not legal; a few weeks ago a user on #reactos (Freenode IRC channel), a user was complaining that his/her JIRA account was disabled. Turns out s/he contributed code with a Microsoft Corporation copyright header that was not GPL compatible. In fact, is was illegal obtained and speculated from OpenNT.
This is definitely not allowed by a huge margin in the legal realm, but also in ReactOS's code base. Those guys cannot risk illegal contamination of their code otherwise they risk jeopardizing the project. (See https://www.reactos.org/user-faq and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS#Internal_audit for more info.)
You might be interested in ReactOS (if they can ever get their shit together and push 1.0 over the line). It's a 100% binary compatible, zero-emulation, entirely open-source replacement for Windows XP.
IF that doesn't work, you can get a non-name brand windows here. It's the same as Windows it just has a different name!
(ReactOS is a white room clone of windows NT the same way as Linux is a white room clone of UNIX. The diffrence is that ReactOS is nowhere near as complete as Linux so it crashes easily. Great for playing with in a VM though.)
> ReactOS® is a free open source operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows NT® architecture (Windows versions such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 are built on Windows NT architecture). Written completely from scratch, ReactOS is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the UNIX architecture.
>The main goal of the ReactOS® project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This will allow your Windows® applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward. The ultimate goal of ReactOS® is to allow you to use it as alternative to Windows® without the need to change software you are used to.
>ReactOS 0.3.17 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.
Hello Bill, I've been wondering for a while what you think about the ReactOS project, which is essentially an open-source recreation of your Windows operating system. Do you feel it might be able to compete with Windows?
It's not pointless, just impractical at the moment. Those are excellent reasons for using an open source driver, but we aren't quite there yet. The game industry is used to closed source drivers, and the closest to interacting with them being at the API level. Right now that's the standard way of developing games. I'm not expecting that to change until Linux dominates a majority of the market, or Windows receives open source drivers, or possibly both. And what about Mantle or G-Sync? Does Nouveau support them?[](/sp)
Though I think the best way would be that Nvidia/AMD/Intel/others would be to make their drivers open source, since they work really well. Without having to reverse engineer a driver, we could spend more time adding enhancements to integrate it with our systems better and get more efficiency on something that's already performing well with current GPUs. We could also take the code from those drivers for current GPUs and add it to the Nouveau driver so they'd perform similar and drive a higher adoption rate for Nouveau. (Including adding support for Mantle and G-Sync) [](/sp)
Maybe all of those broke (or stingy) people that discover ReactOS could put us in a position that makes open source more widely adopted standard that would create a demand for GPU designers to open source their drivers.