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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.
This version contains improved compatibility for most major rootkits and boot sector viruses, as well as emulation for most security vulerabilities all the way through NT4.0 SP2.
I'm glad to see progress on ReactOS. Good job!
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.
I remember when Wine was such a joke that many people including myself saw it as unnecessary and going nowhere useful. You could run things like notepad.exe and calc.exe. It was for many an intriguing passing interest and likely an impossibility as far as ever being really useful. A few months ago I found myself in a real pinch. I absolutely had to install and use some Windows software (a very, very rare event). Yet, I am not running a single instance of Windows nor do I have a copy or interest in pirating it. So, not expecting much, I installed Wine for the first time in many years. Well shit. The software installed and ran flawlessly. Kind of amazed, I spent a good day throwing a ton of Windows software of varying complexity at it. Roughly 80% installed and worked perfectly. More recently I found myself staring down a badly and rapidly decaying Ubuntu system (you know what I mean). It also just so happened that there was a DVD burning imperative. The whole dependency subsystem for burning was shot to hell. Brasero, k3b, command line, it didn't matter, nothing was going to work. This was also the worst dependency hell I have ever seen. There was no uninstalling and reinstalling of anything, and I mean anything at all. It wasn't my system and I was soon to nuke it anyway so I wasn't about to take extreme measures. Fortunately I had previously installed Wine on this system. Downloaded and installed... whatever popular Windows DVD burning software. Worked fine. Nuked the system and gave a lecture on how to not blow up Ubuntu.
So that is my Linux\Wine anecdote
I am not about to ditch Linux, but I am going to give the almost beta ReactOS a fair try with a Windows app by app comparison against Linux. Might even be worth writing an article over.
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