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ReactOS 0.3.14 Released With Improved Networking Stack
An anonymous reader wrote in with news of the latest release of ReactOS, a project to create a complete reimplementation of Windows. The highlights of this release are the integration of a new network stack based upon lwIP, the ability to build using Microsoft's C compiler, and Wifi support. There are a few options for trying it out (emulator image and a livecd amongst others) and source code over at Sourceforge.
At this point I think it's time for me to upgrade from FreeDOS to ReactOS.
FreeDOS has legitimate uses -- I have found it on manufacturers' BIOS updater images.
I, of course, do my updates under Linux with flashrom utility, but I have some taste and sanity, things that most people lose after being exposed to BIOS source code.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
From reactos.org:
ReactOS is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows-NT architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level.
It's also used in quite a few embedded systems running low-end x86 chips. The advantage of something like DOS in this respect is that it's almost like not having an OS, but it still gives you a basic filesystem and program launcher, then gets out of your way.
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ReactOS is duplicating Windows NT, which is a design originally from 1993, although they're actually aiming for compatibility with the 2001 version. Linux and *BSD are duplicating UNIX, which is a design originally from 1969. Interesting? Maybe not. Useful? Probably.
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As a matter of fact, DOSBox is superior to DOS in a virtual machine. Try running a multimedia CD-Rom game of the era, like Burn:Cycle, 11th Hour, Phantasmagoria in DOS virtual machine and you get terrible frame rates, popping and cracking audio, goofy mouse problems, etc. DOSBox seems to "Just work".
Also, DOSBox is not only still being poked at, a lot of games on Steam use DOSBox to run.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Yes you can. Microsoft created the Windows Academic Program for teaching the kernel internals in an academic setting. You get access to the Windows Research Kernel with source code.
DOSEMU is still maintained, though it doesn't get a whole lot of development these days; not a huge deal with it to fix yet. As other replies explained, DOSBox is usually better for games (especially for sound support), but DOSBox has a strict development policy of being only for games, and there's plenty of DOS applications DOSBox does not run and likely will not run in the near future. DOSEMU packages FreeDOS with it and is nearly 100% compatible with all DOS software.
One thing I particularly like about DOSEMU over DOSBox is the filesystem handling. Everything in DOSEMU is mounted as a network share inside of DOS, even the C: drive; this allows you to change around files and whatnot on the native Linux filesystem and have the changes immediately appear in DOS (can't do that with DOSBox). Additionally, DOSEMU has long filename suppport, which is a huge godsend; DOSBox only supports 8+3 names (with its own muddling of non-DOS-compatible names behind the scenes... DOS games don't need long filename support so DOSBox is likely to never support LFNs).
All that being said, I highly recommend avoiding the release version and go straight to the subversion trunk. There are many quite serious bugs in 1.4.0, but I'm not aware of any that exist in the trunk; the developer is rather quick to look into and fix problems when they're reported.
ReactOS is not just duplicating the design. It is also extending it. It is, however, aiming to keep the same ABI. This is hardly an original goal - it is one shared by several modern UNIX and UNIX-like systems. If you think ReactOS is just copying the Windows NT design and not adding improvements, then you've obviously not paid any attention to it in the last ten years.
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