ReactOS Presented To Russian President Putin

An anonymous reader writes "While President Putin was touring the area of Seliger Youth Forum, Marat Karatov demonstrated what can only be described as a fair amount of daring when he called out to the president and requested to present ReactOS to him. Putin agreed, and the project has now presented ReactOS to two successive Russian presidents. Putin responded to the presentation by stating he would think on it."

Comments

Re:2000km on a bus!?

[__Paul__]

Not really. Russia is a very, very big country.

Hell, I've seen some bus trips across Turkey into neighbouring countries that'll do 1600km in roughly two days or so. These would be rather short compared to what is probably required in some areas of Russia.

Well thats cool

[Phrogman]

I am quite happy someone wants to clone Windows to the point where a user can't tell that MS Windows has been replaced by ReactOS. Sort of like a Folger's commercial from way back when.
If they ever complete the project and get a viable version of it, then they have produced a version of Windows that can be run by anyone anywhere without violating Microsoft's copyright etc. It might piss of MS but it would mean and end to them pointing out how popular software piracy is based on the number of illegal copies of MS Windows there are out there, particularly in the third world.
It would also open the door to fixing a lot of the problems that MS ignored, and perhaps they are doing this as they develop it for that matter.
I can't see more free software hurting in any way at any rate, and this lets people capitalize on all the useful software they may currently rely on without having to change or learn new things. User's don't seem to like learning new things unless they are trivial to absorb.

Impress a dictator day

[allcoolnameswheretak]

I don't think that cozying up to a "president" that is in full swing of turning his country into a plutocrat dictatorship and police state while eliminating all opposition is the kind of publicity you want.

Independence for Russia

[Kupfernigk]

So that Russians can use Windows programs, of which there are very many, without using an American OS. I imagine that what he told Putin was "if this gets completed Russia can be sure that Windows programs can be run in secure environments with no risk of them reporting back to the US, and you don't have to pay Microsoft anything for it."

It's funny how a lot of people who seem to be American do not seem to get that for a large part of the world the USA is a threat as well as a promise. It's the butt headed attitude that the Roman Empire got into - we are the bringers of civilisation, everybody must love us. Only it turned out that the Goths didn't want it.

Re:Independence for Russia

[bmo]

"if this gets completed Russia can be sure that Windows programs can be run in secure environments"

Trying to make a bug-compatible Windows clone is secure? You wind up implementing the same design decisions that Microsoft did that makes Windows an unsecure pile. Don't forget that Windows is a *consumer oriented* operating system and the design compromises show it.

It's funny how a lot of people who seem to be American do not seem to get that for a large part of the world the USA is a threat as well as a promise

If you want an OS that is truly international and not dependent on any one country, you want Linux or *BSD or even Plan9 if you don't want to roll your own. It would be cool if the Russians picked up Plan 9 and ran with it. It's got some really good ideas. Besides that, It's easier to write an OS from scratch than to reverse-engineer Windows. It's not like Russia is lacking in the people with that skillset.

Finally, trying to untie yourself from Microsoft and the US by reverse engineering Windows is self-defeating, isn't it? You remain wedded to whatever design Microsoft comes up in the future and chase that forever.

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BMO