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ReactOS 0.4 Brings Open Source Windows Closer To Reality (techrepublic.com)
jeditobe was one of several readers to point out the newest major release of Windows NT-inspired ReactOS, which has just hit version 0.4, brings open source Windows compatibility a little bit closer. The new release includes out-of-the-box support for ext2, ext3, and ext4, as well as (remember, it is NT based) read-only support for NTFS. What else? Support was generally improved for third-party device drivers, making it substantially easier to install and use real hardware, as opposed to just virtual machines like VirtualBox. The internal WINE library was updated to improve support for Win32 programs. Support for Python 2.7 was added, making it possible to use python scripts in ReactOS. A substantial number of visual changes were added, with a vastly improved shell and file explorer, newer icons throughout ReactOS, improved support for fonts, and customizable visual themes. Even with these improvements, ReactOS 0.4 is still generally considered alpha-level software, though Alexander Rechitskiy, the innovation manager for ReactOS, notes that 0.4.1 may be almost beta-level software.
ReactOS reimplements the NT flavor Installable File System (IFS) driver model. This model is very.... complicated. There is a reason why read-write EXT mounting is not a thing on windows systems, despite there being vastly more developers working on that filesystem.
ReactOS SHARES code with WINE. Patches move both directions through both codebases. As such, the libraries used by ReactOS *ARE* WINE libraries. It is not based on WINE, it literally *IS* the usermode components of WINE. They did this, because WINE project is focusing already on a compatible win32 (and win64) user mode.
What ReactOS works on, is the reimplemented NT kernel underneath. Unlike the Wine package for Linux, it does not use wrappers to call POSIX kernel features. It recreates actual NT kernel interfaces, the way NT kernel does on windows. THAT IS WHY NT DRIVERS CAN LOAD AND RUN.
It is theoretically possible that an intrepid person could hack on REAL windows' NTFS.SYS driver, and have real read-write NTFS support. In fact, I expect that this has already been done when testing the read-only driver through debugging, to better know how and what that driver does, so that it can be reimplemented.
Please stop spreading ignorant FUD.
Alas, the TechRepublic article is rather inaccurate. Please read the official news on our website about ReactOS 0.4.