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ReactOS 0.4.2 Released: Supports Linux Filesystems, .NET Applications, and Doom 3 (reactos.org)
Continuing its rapid release cycle, ReactOS has unveiled version 0.4.2 of its free "open-source binary-compatible Windows re-implementation." Slashdot reader jeditobe reports that this new version can now read and write various Linux/Unix file systems like Btrfs and ext (and can read ReiserFS and UFS), and also runs applications like Thunderbird and 7-Zip.
ReactOS 0.4.2 also features Cygwin support, .NET 2.0 and 4.0 application support, among other updated packages and revised external dependencies such as Wine and UniATA. The team also worked to improve overall user experience...
ReactOS is free. You can boot your desktop or laptop from it. It looks like Windows (a 10-year-old version, anyway), so you already know how to use it. And it'll run some Windows and DOS applications, maybe including DOS games that regular 64-bit Windows can no longer touch. These videos even show ReactOS running Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Doom 3.
ReactOS is free. You can boot your desktop or laptop from it. It looks like Windows (a 10-year-old version, anyway), so you already know how to use it. And it'll run some Windows and DOS applications, maybe including DOS games that regular 64-bit Windows can no longer touch. These videos even show ReactOS running Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Doom 3.
...can it run Crysis?
Circumcision is child abuse.
For the longest time, article after article of slow progress I did not even think the developers took this seriously beyond beyond some coding fun. Color me impressed. This might take off in a few years. Now that I think of it, I am reminded of another OS that was relegated "maybe someday".
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
10 years ago was Windows Vista's release... Scary, isn't it!?
No, it looks almost identical to Windows 2000. Compare:
- Windows 2000
- ReactOS
Circumcision is child abuse.
Oh, look. It's the same schmuck who posted essentially the same message on the SpaceX Dragon post.
Hey, putz, if it doesn't interest you, just move along. There are billions of other sites, surely one of them must have something of interest.
Slashdot has been posting stories like that for 20 years and lots of "anyone" are happy to read and comment *constructively.
In short, GTFO and HANL
I appreciate the irony of a ten year development project being in a "rapid release cycle" at version 0.42.
ReactOS 0.4.2 also features Cygwin support
That's pretty much all I need in an OS :)
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Tired of forced upgrades to Windows 10? Tired of not being able to select the patches to install? Tired of patches breaking entire classes of hardware and application? Kick these guys some money or contribute some of your skill and time. Linux is great for apps that have a FOSS alternative. But sometimes you just need Windows. This should be a priority for PCs everywhere.
Do you mean classic theme? Nothing to do with speed, I used to set it because the other looked like it had been designed by Fisher-Price.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Um, since Microsoft doesn't release it's code, there is no way you determine that is was copied. Also, since Microsoft doesn't release it's code, there is no way to copy it. If the APIs are the same, of course. They are trying to create software that runs Windows programs that call Windows APIs. They would have to be the same. The law suit would fall into the same category as SCO vs IBM over Unix code in Linux.
I mean, what is the point behind developing a new version of Windows to run old software if you can't run Bob?
I love it! IMO Windows 2000 was the pinnacle of windows GUIs. Everything since then has just been fisher-price inspired nonsense.
Gimma a GUI that gets the f__k out of my way and lets me focus on what I'm doing, and I'm a happy camper. If your job benefits from you having shiny translucent windows, then your job isn't very difficult to begin with. Windows 8/10 is a step in the right direction, but I think reverting to Windows 2.0 styling, overshot the mark by a smidge.
Hell, even on my Mac, which is nowhere near as overkill with the special effects as Aero is, I still disable all the extraneous transparency effects cause they serve no purpose other than to make things harder to look at.
The [ OS ] is shit in [ Virtualization ] crowd need to have their balls stomped on after being set on fire.
I do my best editing after I hit send.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
*its code.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
>"It looks like Windows (a 10-year-old version, anyway), so you already know how to use it."
Really? What if you have been using Linux pretty much exclusively for a few decades? :)
Um, since Microsoft doesn't release it's code, there is no way you determine that is was copied. Also, since Microsoft doesn't release it's code, there is no way to copy it. If the APIs are the same, of course. They are trying to create software that runs Windows programs that call Windows APIs. They would have to be the same. The law suit would fall into the same category as SCO vs IBM over Unix code in Linux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... == Have a look; they may not be as vulnerable as you believe
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
There have been leaks of Microsoft Windows code.
Your Right!
I'd be less worried about copyright than about patents.
The world doesn't revolve around you. I know I should've prefaced this with a trigger warning, but it's the truth.
I would be so very grateful to the ReactOS community if I could run Office (2007 is fine), Zotero and some version of SolidWorks on it. I don't even dare to install ReactOS to try, as the disappointment would be crushing. Basically, I hope to not be forced to install Windows 10.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
If it's strictly APIs, I don't think so but if the case ends of in the Eastern District Court of Texas, M$ could likely win the right to rape the ReactOS devs every 3rd weekend.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Why don't they do a 64-bit or 128-bit extension of NTFS, and make that their native file system. Make it backward compatible to support reading NTFS files & directories, and a way to write those as well? At least that way, it's a way out for people trying to flee Microsoft, but who are not comfortable w/ Linux, BSD or Apple
My win! :)
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
should be "ends up", not "ends of"
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
This is a cute project but it still doesn't do anything.
It can't even run applications installed through its own application manager.
When I installed Firefox using the built in application manager, the OS froze, then after a reset it wouldn't boot.
It is nice and all to keep me from spending $100 every 2-3 years on a new OS. But that's not where the money is. Active Directory and Client Access Licenses are the money makers. Too much money. When ReactOS performs in the server space, then my pants will get tight over the new version.
Wanting your GUI to look like a decroded piece of shit is one thing, but the lack of Task Bar Pinning and Window Snapping alone make Win2k GUI a huge pain in the ass to use.
It could do for old Win16/32 apps what DOSbox did for old DOS apps, letting users and commercial vendors run their old software on modern hardware.
Twinstiq, game news
to be honest i would suggest GTFO followed by FOAD; people who FOAD and then GTFO well... always remember to double tap!
Do you run Windows or know anyone that does? If so, you should consider this news, ESPECIALLY with all (negative) attention Windows 10 has been getting. There's no better time for something like this which *might* be able to, at a minimum, run in a VM on linux to support those handful of Windows programs you can't live without. Long term, this could be a viable option.
The is shit in crowd need to have their balls stomped on after being set on fire.
Most OS are designed to run on actual hardware. Virtualization is great for servers where the primary focus is the NIC(s) and not the GPU(s).
ie : Stop trying to expect great performance when you are trying to fit a square cube through a small round hole.
Yes ... BUT ONLY for type 2 hypervisors. VirtualBox, VMWare Player/Workstation are both crappy and horrible hypervisors which do not access hardware directly and use buggy drivers on the guest OSes and then use a bugger host wrapper to communicate with the host drivers and OS.
Type 1 hypervisors such as KVM support gaming with full hardware access.Shoot Linus went crazy and got 7 freaking +90 FPS battle going with 7 AMD video cards with full native performance!
So yes with a right hypervisor such as Hyper-V Win10 pro anniversary edition, VMWare ESX, and KVM you can use the OS very close to the bare metal as a type 1 hypervisor goes underneath the os at ring -1 inside the CPU.
KVM is free and so are some tools and Hyper-V is there for cheap if you use Windows Home or free if you have Windows 10 pro to run ReactOS.
http://saveie6.com/
Before your beloved so-called task bar pinning, we had... quick launch bar.
Why not bug-report your problems?
ReactOS can run office 2007 and 2003
If you go to their homepage, they already say that they're in Alpha. They've not even entered Beta. So it's not surprising that you'd have the experience you did.
Why not work ReactOS work w/ the ClassicShell project so that their product can install and run on ReactOS? Maybe even integrate ClassicShell into the OS.
You can turn it off with Winaero Tweaker.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Does not lay within it's technical capabilities and prowess, but with it's management skills and ability to create a community.
For years I've been a fan of ReactOS, actively participating and contributing to the community, albeit not in the form of a coder. Which, in the (still) current ReactOS mentality, is the only thing that counts for the brass, apparently. Testing ReactOS on a dedicated real-life machine (thus, not in VM), debugging, translating, making info-pages on their wikipedia: nothing really matters to the 'elite' of ReactOS. They just consider you some sort of fodder, and the moment you ask for a bit more transparency (on their financial side, for instance), or try to address the complete lack of community involvement, they bork (and bark) at you - and worse. Time and again I've tried to explain this in the past, that a successful project is NOT merely depended on the technical/coder side of things, but also how you establish a community, and try to involve people in your project. There were some half-baked trials at it, but those were mere lipservice, where it was always a consideration of a top-down approach, not a bottom-up way of seeing things.
Ergo; in the 20 years of their project, they have not succeeded in gathering 1/100th of the community that other projects like Linux have. Again and again I've pointed this out to them, but to no avail. They just refuse to see it, and only want things done strictly to their wishes, with their attitude of finding no other (real) importance to the project than 'code'. Which, granted, is an important part, but which will NOT get you a lively, engaging, and growing community - which is an absolute necessity for any open source project to know success. Eventually, since I kept hitting that nail, they got annoyed (not: they realised the error of their ways) and kicked me out too, the so many-th person who was a tester/sponsor/translator/helper of ReactOS they managed to drive away.
Whatever; so I went away, which is what they wanted. But what did it help them, then? Nothing at all. They view constructive criticism as a threat, not as an opportunity to better themselves and the project. They don't value anything someone does outside of their little constraints, and outside their preconceived notions as to what they see as important, yet have the mouth full of 'community-involvement'. Whatever you do, how many years you may have sponsored or helped out as a non-coder, you just are not counted as having done anything worthwhile. They have no inkling of an idea how to get a thriving community where you allow the bottom-up approach as well.
It's a sad thing to say, but the whole thing is run by people with overblown ego's, trying to protect their little turf and egotistical whims, ignoring anyone else, and being autistically elitist in wanting to decide virtually everything to the minute detail. Its only a community-project in name, but not in essence. And that's why, even after 20 years of operation, their project is just a small-scale project who - in comparison with other projects - has almost nothing to show for. They make some small technical progress year after year, that's true, but they fail to realise how much their ego-driven top-down approach has muffled the project to achieve the grandeur and support it could have had, had the top been more prone to some input from the people actually supporting it.
I've poured hundreds of dollars in it, and spend years on it helping them in my own way, only to kicked out when I pointed out their mistakes and lack of transparency. I still lie, the project, but I can not, in good conscience, support (most of) the people running that program/project. they've done it with me, as they've done it with dozens of people: it's no surprise, thus, that they're still at the small scale they are, without any community to speak off. They can't get any traction, because they kill off everything that would get them traction. There are some good coders under them, to be sure, but almost all of them lack the ma
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
Feel free to join ReactOS telegram chat https://telegram.me/reactos
Not trolling, genuinely asking - I'm not a programmer, but in the Free Software Movement I've always heard that Windows code was a mess and Windows is an example of awful architectural design. So, what is the point in making a free version of it rather than bettering Wine or PlayOnLinux?