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.

Comments

Great work

[LichtSpektren]

I'm glad to see progress on ReactOS. Good job!

Re:Great work

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a deep breath.

Now. Look at Microsoft. How many developers do they hire every windows development cycle?

Now-- Look at the development credits for ReactOS. See something missing? Like say-- a few hundred names?

That's why development speed is slow. Linux kernel has a small army of developers. Reactos? Not so much.

Considering the shoestring budget, the small dev pool, and the constant flame-hate against their project, they have an IFS driver for EXT filesystems that runs on NT kernels, that is both read and write. They have a functioning scheduler, and memory management component. They have a shitload of things that they have working or partially working.

And you complain like a bitch with sand in his man-gina? Grow up.

Support for Windows 10 APIs?

[Merk42]

By the time this is stable, no one will write programs using those Windows APIs anymore anyway.

Re:Well there's the kernel, with scheduler, etc

[present_arms]

Actually and believe me I'm no MS fan, however NTFS is actually along with the kernel of windows are the only 2 things in the whole of windows that's any good, if you want a shit file system, look at macs HPFS which is a dog, and I mean 'fat' as in fat 16,32, like dog. ext4 is fine and has ACLs ala windows too (if you learn how to use them) as well as UID/GID permissions. sheesh some people, yes in the days of NT4, NTFS was crap, now-a-days it's a stable file system as any of them.