ReactOS 0.1.0 Released

JasonFilby writes "ReactOS 0.1.0 has been released! ReactOS is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Windows NT applications and drivers. In this release, among other new features and fixes, especially worth mentioning are the ability to boot from CD and self-hosting capabilities (ReactOS can be compiled on ReactOS)." ReactOS has been in progress for a while, often tied to other projects with the aim of seamlessly replacing Windows: you can download an image of Bochs 2.0 with ReactOS 0.1.0 preloaded from the download and changelog page.

Comments

Re:We have an embarrassment of riches here

[Subcarrier]

How many Operating Systems do we actually need?

Three OS for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.
One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Redmond where the Shadows lie.

Sheeesh..

[Anonymous Coward]

If you thought Mono was a legal minefield, this is has to be akin to strinking and flicking matches in dynamite wharehouse.

Re:Sheeesh..

[21mhz]

...in dynamite wharehouse.

It's properly spelled worehouse.

Re:But Windows NT is not 2k...

[rodgerd]

NT 4 is a good, stable target that encompasses the bulk of the Win32 API that is also in Win2k and WinXP. Once they've got that right, rolling forward to Win2K and up should be trivial - getting the basic microkernel and servers right will likely be the hard part.

Could it be merged with wine??

[t0qer]

While this is cool a bunch of guys with time on their hands figured out how to get binary compatility with NT, the one thing that holds people to NT now(XP/2k) is the direct X layer between hardware and OS.

It's still a pretty good feat though and is noteworthy of frontpage news. If the authors are reading would you mind answering a few questions?
1. What timeline do the authors see for adding a directX layer?
2. Do you forsee using the wineX code for reference or will you rewrite it from scratch?

Re:Could it be merged with wine??

[JasonFilby]

We are already trying to port low level windowing code were possible from WINE. Efforts are already underway to make sharing code for higher level DLLs easy. DirectX will be another area to cooperate.

Cheers
Jason

Is this a worthwhile project?

[BrianUofR]

I certainly don't want to start a flamewar here, but I'm not sure if I think this is a useful product. It sounds like the objective of this project is to create a free clone of Windows NT, so people have choice. In order for this to be useful, I need to be able to install an app on either Windows NT 4.0 or ReactOS X.Y, and have the application not know the difference, right?

In order to make that work, the OS must look the same to the app. That means APIs and, at a higher level, the architecture, has to be the same. The reason we don't run any Windows NT based systems in production is that the architecture is flawed. It's a desktop OS with "enterprise" features tacked on. The fundamental architecture of NT is why it sucks, in my mind. To emulate that, even if you give it away for free, doesn't solve the security issues, the performance issues, etc etc.

I have a lot of respect for these guys, kernel hacking from the ground up is tough stuff, but I'd rather see them contributing their talent to the Linux or BSD projects rather than copying a flawed architecture.

Of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Re:Is this a worthwhile project?

[AxelTorvalds]

For crying out loud! Why do we keep assuming that opensource resources just transfer between products?

If these guys weren't working on this, they probably wouldn't be working on anything.

I think this is a hell of a project with a ton of potential. If there was a drop in windows replacement that runs windows apps, that's a killer app. Now they are years and years away from such a platform but from a pure oss ideological perspective this rocks. Anything that helps break the ties and allows for freedom is a good thing.

Re:no gui

[jx100]

yes, no gui whatsoever...

Re:Embedded systems?

[JasonFilby]

Although we aren't expressly targeting embedded, it is an option. However, I'd say ReactOS would make the biggest impact on the desktop.

Cheers
Jason

Re:screenshots?

[sheean.nl]

Oh, you can see the ads already:

ReactOS..

Windows, but without the pretty windows to click on.

Re:legal trouble ahead?

[mentin]

Don't worry. By the time ReactOS reaches version 1.0, those patents will expire. Remember, patent is valid for 20 years only.

Re:legal trouble ahead?

[hobuddy]

Don't worry. By the time ReactOS reaches version 1.0, those patents will expire. Remember, patent is valid for 20 years only.

Haha! We've already thought of this; here's our plan for accelerated development:

Implement the ReactOS kernel as a GNU Hurd daemon, with built-in 3d graphics support based on the Duke Nukem Forever engine (running on top of WINE's DirectX layer).

The built-in 3d engine will be used as the basis for an implementation of the Berlin windowing API, the suggested application interface to which is the Perl 6 virtual machine. We should have all of this up and running on the Indrema console within a mere three months!

Then, we plan to hire Loki games to implement an X-Windows compatibility layer, and we've arrived!