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Russian President Interested In Funding ReactOS

An anonymous reader writes "When Russian President Dmitri Medvedev recently visited a high school where ReactOS developer Marat Karatov happens to study, Karatov took the opportunity to present the open-source Windows-a-like to the President, and got a rather more enthusiastic reaction than might be expected — the President found the project interesting, and would consider funding it." Be forewarned that the BBC article takes a few statements by the developers about boot time and compatibility out of context.

29 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Hey, big things have started this way by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The entire Soviet space program (and, arguably, the American one too) supposedly came out of a brief meeting about ICBM's in 1953 where Sergei Korolev pitched his bigger idea for a space program to Khrushchev.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Hey, big things have started this way by eexaa · · Score: 2

      I wanted to write you a reply from inside ReactOS, but it bluescreened in tcpip.sys.

      Nevermind, ReactOS aplha is still roughly as stable as final-released windows. Hope they will be able to finish this someday, looks promising.

    2. Re:Hey, big things have started this way by MBGMorden · · Score: 3, Informative

      To be fair what the ReactOS guys want to accomplish, to have a Linux that can actually run Windows drivers AND programs without hoop jumping, is ambitious to say the least. Personally I don't see how they'll do it without the Windows source code to look at but I wish them luck.

      ReactOS shares code with WINE, but it is not related to Linux in any way (aside from being another open source OS).

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    3. Re:Hey, big things have started this way by Tuuresairon · · Score: 2

      Oops, it seems I've woken up a troll. Sorry /.. At least he's very amusing.

  2. 3... 2... 1... by suso · · Score: 2

    Be forewarned that the BBC article takes a few statements by the developers about boot time and compatibility out of context.

    In other words, prepare to get your nurd rage on.

    1. Re:3... 2... 1... by Enderandrew · · Score: 2

      The project has been going on for years and years. I wish them luck, but their progress is extremely slow. Wine provides a better solution today for running Windows apps in Linux. Honestly, I think it would make a lot of sense to combine aspects of these two.

      To get many apps working in Wine, you end up having to copy over Windows DLLs that ReactOS provides open-source replacements for. And ReactOS provides a desktop shell that Wine does not.

      I'm not sure that ReactOS will ever be anything more than a hobbyist project.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:3... 2... 1... by chthon · · Score: 2

      And also for running Windows apps on Apple MacOSX. I installed wine via ports, and then installed ModelSim. Works very good.

    3. Re:3... 2... 1... by morgauxo · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, ReactOS uses Wine's code. Improvements are ported back and forth between the two too. Wine provides the API, ReactOS porvides the kernel and shell where traditional Wine use is X-Windows and Li/Unix.

    4. Re:3... 2... 1... by TangoMargarine · · Score: 2

      In which case, ReactOS may support legacy programs better than Windows 12 will, eventually.

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    5. Re:3... 2... 1... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Crash fest? looks like they're doing very well at cloning windows...

    6. Re:3... 2... 1... by bhtooefr · · Score: 3, Informative

      ReactOS's goal is to be a cleanroom engineered OS that at the kernel level is 100% compatible with NT 5.1 or 5.2 (I forget which), and at the userland level is 100% compatible with the latest version of Windows (so NT 6.1, but not for long).

      There's some overlap between ReactOS and WINE, and some stuff gets ported back and forth between the two, but WINE takes some shortcuts that ReactOS can't take.

      WINE also can't really support hardware that only has Windows drivers, whereas ReactOS can.

      And, one development technique that the ReactOS developers are doing is, take a copy of Windows XP, remove a file, and develop a clean-room version. Work on their version until it's stable on XP, then put it in ReactOS. See what broke. Then fix what broke.

  3. Recapturing the glory days? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

    Luckily, Russia has a good deal of experience with producing largely functional clones of western computer systems, so ReactOS could be a perfect fit for them...

    1. Re:Recapturing the glory days? by Squiddie · · Score: 2

      Well, first they start switching to Linux, then they want to fund ReactOS. I think I'm starting to cheer for the Russians. Meanwhile, the US and UK want to police your internet so you don't download stuff.

    2. Re:Recapturing the glory days? by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      it's open source and free as in freedom and beer (GPL), anyone can copy, distribute, sell or not sell, modify, etc in accordance with the GPL

    3. Re:Recapturing the glory days? by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 2

      It was a good idea in the past, but at this point they're at least 3 versions of Windows behind all but ensuring that they're not going to catch up any time soon.

      If that was as big an issue as you think it is, I wouldn't be forced to write code that runs properly in IE6 so cubicle drones with decade old machines can access it.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  4. Let the patent war begin by hAckz0r · · Score: 2

    So far Microsoft has ignored ReactOS, and they have kept plodding along gut have been no threat to the Monopoly. If ReactOS gets enough publicity, and funding, then that equation changes drastically. You can bet that Microsoft will have their lawyers dusting off the patent archives to see what can be used to hold them back from being a serious Windows-like competitor. Only in Russia, they don't care about the US legal system except for any International agreements that they can not ignore. It will be interesting to watch, and I'm hoping the best for the ReactOS folks.

    1. Re:Let the patent war begin by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Parts of the application-facing side of things are shared with WINE(since both projects aim at having a working win32 land, as far as programs are concerned); but ReactOS goes to the additional effort of attempting to duplicate the NT kernel sufficiently closely as to be compatible with Windows drivers as well...

    2. Re:Let the patent war begin by North+Korea · · Score: 2

      Only in Russia, they don't care about the US legal system except for any International agreements that they can not ignore.

      You seriously think Russia can't ignore international agreements if they want to? US does all the time, Russia can too. Even if just to show off to USA. What will the rest of the world do if Russia ignores the agreements? Stops buying energy from them? People in Europe better get used to having no electricity, and prepare for a cold winter.

    3. Re:Let the patent war begin by Noughmad · · Score: 2

      Why not something new instead of let's make a clone of X.

      Because drivers.

      Hardware manufacturers only release drivers for Windows, Mac, and usually Linux, and they are very rarely open source. Applications are not the problem, especially if it's meant as a desktop UI, as long as you provide a C compiler. But you have to clone one of the major OS's driver interfaces if you want it to work on a wide range of hardware.

      As someone pointed out above, Android and iOS did not have this problem, because they were targeted on specific and controlled hardware. As a desktop OS, you can't afford that.

      --
      PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
    4. Re:Let the patent war begin by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Funny

      Any printer that doesn't speak Postscript or PCL is just a stepper-motor donor waiting to happen...

    5. Re:Let the patent war begin by Khyber · · Score: 3, Informative

      And yet it does every thing I've asked it to do. I'm even rocking some Quake, and I can post on slashdot, I can boot instantly, I have no issues with multiple programs open, and it just so happens to be the interface OS for my research station at home.

      Proprietary, but its FREE and it comes with tools to let you do things.

      Is nobody a child at heart any longer? What happened to that drive to tinker?

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  5. Interesting news, really by Rennt · · Score: 2

    But it has got to be one of the worst articles ever posted to /.

  6. And yet another summary gone wrong. by Pi1grim · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Really? Enthusiastic? President said that it is a very good and promising thing (considering a hight school student told him they were developing a free OS that could replace windows and keep old windows programs working) and made a joke that he does not have a million dollars in his pocket, but "he will think about it". You all know what this means/

  7. Government's funding of projects by roman_mir · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Governments funding of projects, any projects, is mis-allocation of resources. If the project in question has any reason to exist, then there would be private funding for it, private lending, private interest.

    Government can push agenda, but they can't make it work nor should they try.

    Either there is a reason for something to exist in the market or there isn't. Government commanding reasons does not work.

    1. Re:Government's funding of projects by roman_mir · · Score: 2

      By the way, my original comment was in no way a 'flamebait', but again, /. moderation is broken.

      To reply to your comment: Yuri Gagarin and the entire space race was funded by using basically what amounts to slave labor in the former USSR. I should know, I was born there. Most of the country's resources was directed to military spending, space race, and whatever dust that could be thrown into the people's eyes, just to make it look like something worked.

      As to Neil Armstrong - SS fund was raided for that and to what purpose? How much private enterprise innovation was stifled and diverted to this waste of resources, putting a man into orbit, when it is in fact clear that we don't need people in space at this time because we don't have a purpose for them being there.

      Nuclear energy has been subverted by government agenda, I talked about it here. It should be done privately to search for cheaper, more efficient ways of generating power.

      As to ENIAC - there is always an argument that other priorities must be put on hold, when important wars are fought, and then all of the nation's resources are diverted to that. Unfortunately we fight these wars, but we fight them specifically because governments destroys free market and prevent economies from working, and then there are too many unemployed, which can be diverted by some perverted "leaders" to fight bloody wars. This is NOT a good endorsement of government power AT ALL.

    2. Re:Government's funding of projects by roman_mir · · Score: 2

      Capitalism is only interested in maximising short term profits.

      This is false, I will take a great caution to explain why, caution, because it is NOT popular view on /.

      As an individual person I am interested in being able to live a long and prosperous life. I may absolutely FAIL in doing that, but it's the goal. To be able to lead a life that is prosperous, I do think about long term consequences of my investment, my actions and work.

      Were I an individual person, who had unrestricted access to government and ability to "borrow" from government at 0% interest (that's why borrowing is in quotes), then it would be in my best interest to borrow as much as possible without any restraints and to attempt to gamble with that money instead of trying to invest it, because though the money is given to me at 0% interest, I may have to (maybe) return the principal at some point in time.

      Free money makes people gamble and take great risks.

      Investing your own money makes people understand that there is risk.

      I did write about the reasons for HFT here and about free money and it applies to thinking of all business in economies, that are this regulated, this inflated, this taxed and this subsidized.

      There is no reason to take a long term look at things, when there is gambling going on all around. There is no reason to pay dividends and there is no reason to expect dividends, with these levels of inflation. There is no reason to think beyond the next quarter, because the company is broke today, it's on life line extended by government support, tomorrow this blood line may be cut and then the company will die. Everybody knows about it, nobody admits it.

      Some people are talking, but they are not taken seriously as always.

      However, it's pretty hard to deny that an alternative operating system that's fully compatible with Windows applications will not be commercially viable.

      - BS. I won't be, because there IS already an alternative to Windows. It's pirated Windows and it will always be the preferred alternative to those, who want Windows, don't want to pay for it, while not interested in switching to half a dozen of other options, including Apple, GNU/Linux/Unix, whatever.

      The big issue with failures like Solyndra is that there was no transparency and no accountability. That says a lot more about the Obama administration than it does about government involvement in backing startups.

      - there is NO SUCH THING as accountability when it comes to money that comes out of the printing presses by the very definition of the fact, of where the 'money' came from.

  8. But does it run... by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

    all the viruses, worms and other malware?

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  9. Re:Hmmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not being able to run Internet Explorer is a feature.

  10. Of course not they have a sense of humour by LostMyBeaver · · Score: 2

    People need to understand already that humor is when you can make jokes and laugh at funny things. Do things that make people smile or smile when you find something funny.

    Humour on the other hand is not the same thing. To understand humour, you have to understand that the term funny isn't referring "Oh my god!!! He was so funny. I nearly laughed my ass off and at one point damn near choked on my lung". In the case of humour, funny refers to something like "Hmm.... this fish smells funny... would you eat still eat it?"

    Humour is based on statements that are either strictly ironic or sardonic. They can't actually be humorous. Also, humour is often so hard to understand even by the connoisseurs of "fine humour" that under all circumstances after a humourous statement is made, in order to ensure that the audience of said humour is prompted with some sort of explanation as to why it was in fact humourous and therefore the audience will understand they are meant to smile. It is also important to understand that humour is entirely dependent on a laugh track and cannot be understood or appreciated properly without it.

    A fine example of humor vs. humour would be that in humor, a clown would entertain children by throwing a pie at another clowns face. The other clown would then begrudgingly wipe the whipped cream from around his mouth, then his eyes. He would the swing a big fish around to smack the first clown back in revenge, but that clown would duck and the swing clown would continue his swing and fall down. That would be humorous.

    In the case of humour. Some bald guy would throw a pie at another guy wearing a suit. The laugh track would giggle a little in the background, something not too noisy or intrusive. Another guy would come on stage and say "He hit that guy in the face with a pie... that's funny!" at which point the laugh track would prompt the audience to grin by being played loudly and prolonged.

    There have been odd freaks of nature within England (the Scotts and Irish in general are just damn funny, but have been forced over centuries to spell humor as humour as to allow the English to claim a superiority by associating humor with humour as opposed to adopting humor in lieu of humour) such as John Cleese who has managed to combine humor with humour to entertain humans and English alike. We have reason to believe however that he is in fact the bastard child of his mother and the Scottish man servant as the genetics required to understand humor are absolutely absent from the gene pool found in England.

    To prove this, there will be multiple readers who either are English or sympathize with the English (such as those social oddities found in Vancouver) who will take offense to this post and rise to the bait and either attempt to prove me wrong or simply express being offended. The proof of this is based on the fact that they simply will lack the ability to understand that this is a posting which uses their humour as a the subject of my humor. Additionally, there will be at least one person who takes serious offense to American's trying to take ownership of a language they spent nearly a millennium hacking into the utter rubbish it has now evolved to and that Webster's attack on the precious Queen's 'ou' to abbreviate the far less efficient 'o' (remember inbreeding) is simply a spelling difference as opposed to a differentiation great enough to justify an alternative definition.