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ReactOS Reviewed in Depth

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the reactionary-seems-a-fair-description dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NeoSmart Technologies has an incredibly detailed (6 long pages!) and mostly positive review of ReactOS, The Open Source Windows. The review covers the goals of ReactOS and how well it meets them, system stability, application compatibility, kernel design and development, and the networking stack. It discusses the use of WINE in ReactOS' kernel and the effect on both its compatibility and development times." For the visual learners, here are some screenshots."

10 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Ars is less positive by ZachPruckowski · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ars Review

    They basically say it runs Firefox and Solitaire, but that's it. "Lots of promise, but needs work".

    1. Re:Ars is less positive by kimvette · · Score: 3, Informative

      It may run firefox and solitaire, but have you tried to install drivers on it? It's not a fun process. :(

      Some (many) drivers consist of:

        - install driver on a Windows box
        - Track down all dependencies, registry entries, COM component registrations, etc.
        - Move all those components to the ReactOS box

      I started working on an AiW install on ReactOS but it was too time-consuming to finish for a system I just wanted to play around with a little bit.

      What they need to work on is making sure that drivers can be installed using the native installers, then more people will come and get involved in the project, even if only to provide feedback.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  2. react, to their servers... by joe+155 · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you want screenshots then you can get them from the official site... http://www.reactos.org/de/screenshots.html

    --
    *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
  3. Re:ReactOS and WINE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    copied comment?

    http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=166001&c id=13853454

  4. Official ReactOS Website by frik85 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Official ReactOS Website:
    http://www.reactos.org/

    Screenshots:
    http://www.reactos.org/?page=screenshots
    http://www.reactos.org/?page=tour

    About ReactOS:
    http://www.reactos.org/?page=about
    http://www.reactos.org/?page=about_whatisreactos

    Downloads (LiveCD, InstallCD, VM images):
    http://www.reactos.org/?page=download

    Compatibility Database:
    http://www.reactos.org/support/

    --
    My favourite operating system is ReactOS; binary compatible to WinNT series :P
  5. Re:The fonts! by jesuscyborg · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why didn't they use Microsoft's fonts?

    Uhm, because Microsoft's fonts have a restrictive license that prohibits them from being included in a Free OS.

  6. Have they tested on actual hardware? by martinultima · · Score: 3, Informative

    Kind of a rhetorical question, but I'm kind of wondering if any reviewers have actually tested it on a real machine, rather than VMware, QEMU, etc. I've been watching it since 0.2.3 or so, and I've actually started toying around with 0.3.0-RC1 on a spare machine I have – Compaq DeskPro EP6000, PIII-650, 64MB – and have found that with, say, Notepad and Firefox running it's quite stable. Kept it up for around half an hour before I just got bored and shut it off. Doesn't yet support my video card or network, but it's still pretty nice.

    My own review is on the ReactOS forums if anyone wants to know exactly what it's like – no pictures, because I haven't installed any screenshot or image manipulation software yet, but anyway... http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=20166

    Anyway, just thought I might point out that it works on real machines just as well as, or in some cases even better than, on a virtual machine.

    --
    Creative misinterpretation is your friend.
  7. History by dpaton.net · · Score: 4, Informative

    And no I'm not going to switch to a MAC. Emagic pulled the rug from under me once (just after I'd paid for an upgrade) so I Learnnt my lesson the hard way.

    Actually, Apple bought Emagic and killed the PC version. Emagic didn't really have a choice once they'd been bought. The odds of Logic working on a Mac for a long long time are better than they ever were on a PC. Not to say you should get a Mac, just trying to clarify the history.

    As for me, I'm still pining for the long gone Studio Vision Pro. Gibson...now there's a company to hate.

    --
    This is not a sig. this is a duck. quack.
  8. Re:Too late? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative
    ReactOS started as a win95 clone, and yet it incorporates features in Windows XP

    Not really. It started as an NT4 clone. Then they started adding features only found in NT5 (Win2K) and now they're also adding things in NT5.1 (WinXP). Note that they still don't have a full drop-in replacement for NT4 though. Not to knock the ReactOS team; there aren't very many of them, and what they have achieved is incredible.

    Cloning operating systems seems to be a popular pass time in the F/OSS community. We have UNIX clones, a Windows clone, an Amiga clone, and even a BeOS clone. It's a shame no one is working anything VMS or QNX-like though...

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  9. Re:Too late? by middlemen · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's a shame no one is working anything VMS or QNX-like though...

    FreeVMS exists at http://freevms.free.fr/indexGB.html.