ReactOS Reviewed in Depth

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."

Comments

Too late?

[gasmonso]

While I find the idea of an open source Windows facinating... is it too late? With Vista coming out soon, many new applications written will only run on Vista because of the new architecture, driver model, etc. ReactOS seems like it will be stuck in the past catering to XP applications/games while Vista goes forward. Since most people already have XP who would use this? Or will ReactOS emulate Vista? No, this is not a troll post, but a legit question.

http://religiousfreaks.com/

Re:Too late?

[AKAImBatman]

Look on the bright side, at least ReactOS went somewhere. It may be kind of late in starting, but it was fairly well managed from the beginning. Contrast that with the FreeDows project, the secretive brainchild of a whiz-kid who bit off more than he could chew. The end result? Absolutely nothing.

At least with ReactOS, it's likely to live on in some form as it's already useful to many people. (Fringe cases or not.) Even if it stays behind the Windows curve, it will be one more product nipping at Microsoft's heels.

Re:Too late?

[TractorBarry]

If I can run Logic Audio, the Audiowerk 8 driver and Sound Forge on top of it then I'm definitely interested.

My primary use for my Windows box is for running Windows audio/MIDI related tools and I'd love to have an open source platform to run them on. Especially if I could strip the OS to the bare minimum that's required to run the hardware & software I want to use (i.e. complete control of which services are running, what's started at boot time etc)

As support for the Windows version of Logic Audio was discontinued I'm even keener to have an open source OS that can run these apps. I'm running Windows 2000 and will not be upgrading to XP/Vista etc. under any circumstances (too many friends/colleagues with too many problems). My current combintaion of Windows 2000 and Logic etc. allows me to get on with making music and I'm happy to stay this way but will have to face the fact that eventually support for Windows 2000 will cease.

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. The only way I will ever buy commercial software again is it it comes with the source so can be supported by third parties/myself when thhe manufacturer decides to take their ball home.

Of course I'd love to be able to do what I can currently do on my Windows box using equivalent Linux tools bu sadly there is nothing yet to compare to Logic Logic. (and yes I have tried Rosegarden, Audacity, Ardour etc. etc.)

So I for one hope ReactOS goes from strength to strength.

Re:Too late?

[Spy der Mann]

is it too late? With Vista coming out soon

ReactOS started as a win95 clone, and yet it incorporates features in Windows XP. It can as well be extended to support vista features (and as we've seen, Vista still has a lot of the XP kernel code). IIRC there's a feature request in ReactOS for virtualization.

I hope that with the recent events happening in Europe, Microsoft will be forced to document the API for Windows Vista, so ReactOS can be more competition.

Most people DON'T need the latest advancements in the Windows OS, they just want it to do their spreadsheets and letter writing. Many of those still use Win98, they don't have the money to upgrade to XP, and with the support dropped for 98, they might as well conform the perfect userbase for ReactOS.

And with the ghost of Genuine Advantage approaching, i think ReactOS will make its debut just in time. When it's finished, the people who are using pirated copies of XP will probably switch instantly.

Because, why stick with a (buggy and virus-prone) pirated version of Windows, when you can have a legal one, for the same price (free)? :)

Re:Too late?

[Anonymous Coward]

Too late in starting? They began in 98, even earlier if you count the preceding project.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS

If you consider the narrowness of the gap between Win98 and Vista, compared to the hyped-up predictions, they really have gone a long way.

Granted, there would be a lot less progress made without the Wine contributions, but still. A working reimplementation of any closed, commercial product is great.

This project will help everyone:
* Businesses who still(!!) have legacy Win16 and NT apps
* Microsoft: Fewer 98/NT clients to support, with them having moved to Wine/Linux, ReactOS, or MacOS
* Free Software supporters

I don't know if it will be nipping at their heels so much as taking up any slack Microsoft has to look back on and cornering them more and more into Vista.

Between Wine, CrossOver, ReactOS, Parallels, BootCamp, etc., removing Microsoft's hold on 98/NT/2K legacy technologies, and Microsoft shooting themselves in their feet over Vista, they have no choice but to crawl out into the Xbox/MediaCenter and out of the Server and Datacenter, which is where they belong, and have been trying to get to since Bob and their first Joystick.

Re:Too late?

[nine-times]

Even if it stays behind the Windows curve, it will be one more product nipping at Microsoft's heels.

It's not as thought that curve is very steep. When's the last time a new version of Windows added a feature you've actually used? For me, I think it was Windows 2000, and that feature was "not built on DOS".

Re:Too late?

[orasio]

"_If_ ReactOS ever comes to be a viable solution,"

There was an emphasized "If" in my post. Of course, is ReactOS is "kludgey", there will be no use for it, but _if_ it isn't, it _will_ be a viable solution.

The feasibility of a good clone of winxp is another issue completely. Of course, I agree that it's difficult, and that it's not a good idea, but the motivation to d it, of course, is that if they succeed in their huge task, there is in the end some use for the project.

There are actually lots of places that use 2000, because they have no need for XP. The migration to vista should be more difficult than the migration to a good xp clone.

A good xp clone _is_ something else, specially if it has some hidden advantages you can enjoy, like better licensing, support and stuff.

GNU/Linux is a unix clone, and people choose it instead of the real thing, even if it's not 100% compatible.
Functional compatibility is important, but other things are important too.

Re:Too late?

[xenocide2]

If joe wants to play his mp3s, he'll need to take it up with the people asking for cold hard cash for the privledge of listening to his music. This is what happens when Joe User allows the people who disrespect intellectual property entirely (aka The Scene) dictate technological choices.

Enabling mp3 support could hurt them in a number of very real senses. If they choose to purchase a licscence for every user (and subsequent user as possible under the GPL) they'd be out serious dough. If they choose to distribute such software without paying, they've exposed themselves to legal liability above that cost. If they use the recently created legal gstreamer-mp3 plugin, they cannot fully comply with the spirit of Open Source and the GPL. And by supporting mp3 they also implicitly support software patents.

It's unfortunate that this problem exists, and it's all because a piracy group or two started releasing mp3s to the public, instead of carefully investigating and developing their own solution. Essentially, the public has bought into disreguarding intellectual property and they'll have to dig themselves out of this mess one way or another eventually. I think the current RestrictedFormats system is burying one's head in the sand and won't solve any problems in the long run.

The only good news here is that the first of the mp3 patents (and only?) is expected to expire in 2010. But even then, the argument only shifts from how awful it is that mp3s don't work to how awful h264 playback is, and why various movie files people have don't play on Ubuntu.

ReactOS and WINE

[slashdot-jake]

In case anyone doesn't know. The ReactOS project works closely with WINE. They are implementing the API from WINE on a replica of the Windows 2000 kernel.

This means that both Windows drivers and applications will work natively without any changes. They seem to have come on leaps and bounds in the past year with many applications working straight away (OpenOffice, Abiword, mIRC, Unreal Tournament, InfranView, PuTTY as some). Once they start implementing some of the security features then there will be another viable alternative.

In the future I can imagine ReactOS coming on a CD with OpenOffice, Apache etc, much like Linux distributions do, which creates an easy migration path:

Windows + Apps -> Windows + OSS Apps -> ReactOS + OSS Apps then then off to a Linux or *BSD varient if you want.

Re:ReactOS and WINE

[Vorondil28]

Windows + Apps -> Windows + OSS Apps -> ReactOS + OSS Apps then then off to a Linux or *BSD varient if you want.

What?!? Why the step from one implementation of Windows to another? The point of ReactOS is to be a free (as in beer and speech) replacement of Windows, not a stepping-stone of some kind. I can understand getting acquainted with OSS apps on Windows before diving into Unix, but switching to ReactOS along the way would be redundant and a waste of time.

Re:ReactOS and WINE

[WilliamSChips]

I think the very best course of action would be to start building distros that can virtualize Linux and ReactOS without dual booting

I think you mean "get ReactOS in Xen".

ReactOS Desktop in Linux/Wine

[GodWasAnAlien]

I think a big step for Wine would to be able to run the ReactOS desktop.
Then a Wine Desktop could be running in its own virtual terminal.
One could also create a Wine/Linux distribution, to create another free windows development/run environment.
A Wine/Linux distribution would use Linux drivers. This currently would have an advantage over ReactOS,
as ReactOS is limited to use blob windows drivers, or a few open source drivers.

If you can successfully run the ReactOS desktop in Wine, please share. I have tried it a few times (running ROS exploerer.exe desktop in Wine), but it is not quite usable.

What about native Linux app support?

[Clazzy]

Would it not be highly advantageous to allow the running of Linux binaries as well? I don't have a great deal of knowledge on the subject, but wouldn't it be relatively easy to implement something like this because it's open-source code?