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ReactOS Reviewed in Depth
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:00 AM
from the reactionary-seems-a-fair-description dept.
from the reactionary-seems-a-fair-description dept.
An anonymous reader writes "NeoSmart Technologies has an incredibly detailed (6 long pages!) and mostly positive review of ReactOS, The Open Source Windows. The review covers the goals of ReactOS and how well it meets them, system stability, application compatibility, kernel design and development, and the networking stack. It discusses the use of WINE in ReactOS' kernel and the effect on both its compatibility and development times." For the visual learners, here are some screenshots."
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ReactOS 0.3.1 Released 189 comments
fireballrus writes with news of the release of ReactOS 0.3.1 — press release, changelog, download packages. ReactOS is "an open source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with applications and drivers written for the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003)." The press release notes: "Please don't forget this is an alpha-stage operating system, which means it is not suitable to replace your main OS. Also, this release is aimed to be run mostly in virtualizers / emulators (like QEmu, VMWare, Parallels, etc): because of the big amount of changes, our development team was not able to test/fix all problems which arise when running ReactOS on real hardware."
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Picture gallery toasted (Score:1, Funny)
(http://www.topdoggps.com/ | Last Journal: Friday November 02, @03:38AM)
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Error
Error (ERROR_STORAGE_FAILURE) :
* in modules/core/classes/GalleryStorage.class at line 236 (gallerycoreapi::error)
* in modules/core/classes/GalleryStorage.class at line 465 (mysqlstorage::_getconnection)
* in modules/core/classes/Gallery.class at line 239 (mysqlstorage::search)
* in modules/core/classes/helpers/GalleryFileSystemEnt
* in modules/core/classes/GalleryCoreApi.class at line 1968 (galleryfilesystementityhelper_simple::fetchchild
* in modules/core/classes/helpers/GalleryFileSystemEnt
* in modules/core/classes/GalleryCoreApi.class at line 1911 (galleryfilesystementityhelper_simple::fetchitemi
* in modules/rewrite/classes/RewriteSimpleHelper.class at line 48 (gallerycoreapi::fetchitemidbypath)
* in ??? at line 0 (rewritesimplehelper::loaditemidfrompath)
* in modules/rewrite/classes/RewriteUrlGenerator.class at line 96
* in modules/rewrite/classes/parsers/modrewrite/ModRew
* in init.inc at line 111 (modrewriteurlgenerator::init)
* in main.php at line 71
Re:Picture gallery toasted (Score:5, Funny)
What is there to ReactTo? (Score:2, Funny)
Too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://religiousfreaks.com/)
While I find the idea of an open source Windows facinating... is it too late? With Vista coming out soon, many new applications written will only run on Vista because of the new architecture, driver model, etc. ReactOS seems like it will be stuck in the past catering to XP applications/games while Vista goes forward. Since most people already have XP who would use this? Or will ReactOS emulate Vista? No, this is not a troll post, but a legit question.
http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]Re:Too late? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://whineymacfanboy.googlepages.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 12 2007, @09:28AM)
At the very least, it will be useful for corporations using current win32 stuff who don't want to migrate to vista when XP eols.
(similar to samba really only fulling supporting domains close to NTs eol)
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://whineymacfanboy.googlepages.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 12 2007, @09:28AM)
Somehow I doubt that.
*snort* - I bet you said the same thing about linux (or samba, or bsd, or whatever) back in the day hey?
Don't forget - XP will get extended support from MS for seven years after Vista's release. In the unlikely event Vista is released tomorrow (or hell, even Janurary), its still going to be plenty of time for ReactOS to get tested, support options, improve compatability, etc.
Yeah, sure, and DOS is dead by now. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.sympato.ch/)
Whith such an exemple of another old system, we can be sure that nobody will find whatever use for ReactOS, given the fact that Windows Vista will retain no compatibility with a legacy of win32 APPs [wikipedia.org] and has nothing to do with the NT family which is emulated by ReactOS and Wine [reactos.org]. And ReactOS and Wine have stated that they will never [winehq.com], I mean really never [winehq.com] try to implement more modern API like Win64 and thus won't be able to run all the huge amount of 64bit apps [wikipedia.org] that are seen everywhere (and of which most aren't open-source anyway and aren't ported to linux either (2) ).
ReactOS is likely to die and go the Linux/BSD way. Netcraft is confirming it in Soviet Russia. In Korea, only old people find usefulness to free and open alternatives that retain compatibility to commercial versions.
Har, har, har.
1 - bootdisks and -CD are specially popular in big places where you need to quickly upgrade BIOSes and Firmware non-interactively just by pluging a disc. The same can't be achieved from windows yet (there are windows-based flasher, but they can't be deployed thru usual network channels as software update)
2 - Windows 64bits is once again a proof of the supperiority of open-source. The first softwares that was the most easily ported to Win64 API were the open-source one, were the developpement is much easier because of source code availability : 7Zip, Blender&Yafray, Mame, FireFox, PuTTY, POV, VirtualDub, and many other. Where as only a couple of commercial games (because they make nice tech demos in booths) were ported, and almost no commercial multimedia package (although multimedia was supposed to benefit the most from the increased memory address space and was hoped to be among the first ported to Win64).
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.intelligentblogger.com/ | Last Journal: Monday August 27, @11:47AM)
At least with ReactOS, it's likely to live on in some form as it's already useful to many people. (Fringe cases or not.) Even if it stays behind the Windows curve, it will be one more product nipping at Microsoft's heels.
Re:Too late? (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.nine-times.org/)
Even if it stays behind the Windows curve, it will be one more product nipping at Microsoft's heels.
It's not as thought that curve is very steep. When's the last time a new version of Windows added a feature you've actually used? For me, I think it was Windows 2000, and that feature was "not built on DOS".
Re:Too late? Are You Serious?!?!?! (Score:5, Insightful)
That seems like a really careless statement on your part. Are you saying that virtually all new applications are being written for an OS that you can't even buy for 6 more months? Boy that's sure going to put a dent in the next 2 quarters earning statements for every major software company.
Oh, and btw, are they writing for 32-bit Vista, or 64-bit Vista?
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.jollyboyscc.org.uk/)
My primary use for my Windows box is for running Windows audio/MIDI related tools and I'd love to have an open source platform to run them on. Especially if I could strip the OS to the bare minimum that's required to run the hardware & software I want to use (i.e. complete control of which services are running, what's started at boot time etc)
As support for the Windows version of Logic Audio was discontinued I'm even keener to have an open source OS that can run these apps. I'm running Windows 2000 and will not be upgrading to XP/Vista etc. under any circumstances (too many friends/colleagues with too many problems). My current combintaion of Windows 2000 and Logic etc. allows me to get on with making music and I'm happy to stay this way but will have to face the fact that eventually support for Windows 2000 will cease.
And no I'm not going to switch to a MAC. Emagic pulled the rug from under me once (just after I'd paid for an upgrade) so I Learnnt my lesson the hard way. The only way I will ever buy commercial software again is it it comes with the source so can be supported by third parties/myself when thhe manufacturer decides to take their ball home.
Of course I'd love to be able to do what I can currently do on my Windows box using equivalent Linux tools bu sadly there is nothing yet to compare to Logic Logic. (and yes I have tried Rosegarden, Audacity, Ardour etc. etc.)
So I for one hope ReactOS goes from strength to strength.
History (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.dpaton.net/ | Last Journal: Friday May 17 2002, @04:09PM)
Actually, Apple bought Emagic and killed the PC version. Emagic didn't really have a choice once they'd been bought. The odds of Logic working on a Mac for a long long time are better than they ever were on a PC. Not to say you should get a Mac, just trying to clarify the history.
As for me, I'm still pining for the long gone Studio Vision Pro. Gibson...now there's a company to hate.
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~Spy+der+Mann/journal/ | Last Journal: Saturday November 10, @01:50AM)
ReactOS started as a win95 clone, and yet it incorporates features in Windows XP. It can as well be extended to support vista features (and as we've seen, Vista still has a lot of the XP kernel code). IIRC there's a feature request in ReactOS for virtualization.
I hope that with the recent events happening in Europe, Microsoft will be forced to document the API for Windows Vista, so ReactOS can be more competition.
Most people DON'T need the latest advancements in the Windows OS, they just want it to do their spreadsheets and letter writing. Many of those still use Win98, they don't have the money to upgrade to XP, and with the support dropped for 98, they might as well conform the perfect userbase for ReactOS.
And with the ghost of Genuine Advantage approaching, i think ReactOS will make its debut just in time. When it's finished, the people who are using pirated copies of XP will probably switch instantly.
Because, why stick with a (buggy and virus-prone) pirated version of Windows, when you can have a legal one, for the same price (free)?
Re:Too late? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://theravensnest.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @07:05AM)
Not really. It started as an NT4 clone. Then they started adding features only found in NT5 (Win2K) and now they're also adding things in NT5.1 (WinXP). Note that they still don't have a full drop-in replacement for NT4 though. Not to knock the ReactOS team; there aren't very many of them, and what they have achieved is incredible.
Cloning operating systems seems to be a popular pass time in the F/OSS community. We have UNIX clones, a Windows clone, an Amiga clone, and even a BeOS clone. It's a shame no one is working anything VMS or QNX-like though...
Ars is less positive (Score:5, Informative)
They basically say it runs Firefox and Solitaire, but that's it. "Lots of promise, but needs work".
Re:Ars is less positive (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Tuesday June 14 2005, @10:49AM)
Re:Ars is less positive (Score:5, Funny)
=Smidge=
Re:Ars is less positive (Score:4, Informative)
(http://kim.biyn.com/)
Some (many) drivers consist of:
- install driver on a Windows box
- Track down all dependencies, registry entries, COM component registrations, etc.
- Move all those components to the ReactOS box
I started working on an AiW install on ReactOS but it was too time-consuming to finish for a system I just wanted to play around with a little bit.
What they need to work on is making sure that drivers can be installed using the native installers, then more people will come and get involved in the project, even if only to provide feedback.
BSOD too... (Score:5, Funny)
Now I call that 100% compatible;)
The one time! (Score:2, Funny)
ReactOS and WINE (Score:1, Interesting)
This means that both Windows drivers and applications will work natively without any changes. They seem to have come on leaps and bounds in the past year with many applications working straight away (OpenOffice, Abiword, mIRC, Unreal Tournament, InfranView, PuTTY as some). Once they start implementing some of the security features then there will be another viable alternative.
In the future I can imagine ReactOS coming on a CD with OpenOffice, Apache etc, much like Linux distributions do, which creates an easy migration path:
Windows + Apps -> Windows + OSS Apps -> ReactOS + OSS Apps then then off to a Linux or *BSD varient if you want.
Re:ReactOS and WINE (Score:4, Informative)
copied comment?
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=166001&c id=13853454 [slashdot.org]
Re:ReactOS and WINE (Score:5, Insightful)
When I first saw ReactOS I was very interested, at the very least as a dual-boot for apps that won't run on my Linux desktop. But what runs on it is less than interesting. Take your list:
OpenOffice - runs on Linux.
Abiword - runs on Linux.
mIRC - there are dozens of IRC clients for Linux, some of which are superior to mIRC, IMHO.
Unreal Tournament - runs on Linux.
InfranView - There are better options on Linux, IMO. The only reason I've ever used this app is because 5 years ago there were no good free image tools on Windows. Now, I even use Gimp on Windows.
PuTTY - only necessary on Windows to get at ssh servers running on *nix. ssh is supported by so many things on Linux, not the least of which is the original openssh client.
So, I'm having a hard time seeing any reason to try ReactOS out. Could someone point out something that ReactOS can run that doesn't run on Linux, and doesn't have a better option on Linux?
Re:ReactOS and WINE (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course there are more/better Linux options. For one, Linux is vastly more mature, and has a much greater user/developer base. Second, ReactOS is still in ALPHA stage. It has a ways to go before a full release worthy OS, and they (the ReactOS developers) would be the first to tell you.
react, to their servers... (Score:4, Informative)
(Last Journal: Wednesday September 20 2006, @10:30AM)
ReactIIS (Score:5, Funny)
Official ReactOS Website (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.reactos.org/)
http://www.reactos.org/ [reactos.org]
Screenshots:
http://www.reactos.org/?page=screenshots [reactos.org]
http://www.reactos.org/?page=tour [reactos.org]
About ReactOS:
http://www.reactos.org/?page=about [reactos.org]
http://www.reactos.org/?page=about_whatisreactos [reactos.org]
Downloads (LiveCD, InstallCD, VM images):
http://www.reactos.org/?page=download [reactos.org]
Compatibility Database:
http://www.reactos.org/support/ [reactos.org]
The fonts! (Score:2, Funny)
Non-Slashdotted Screenshots (Score:2, Informative)
Ya but... (Score:2, Funny)
(http://lockboxpc.supervcrmod.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday January 05 2003, @04:34AM)
No, LiteStep
I said...litestep...ah forget it.
Have they tested on actual hardware? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://ultima-inet.kicks-ass.org/~multima | Last Journal: Wednesday June 14 2006, @03:43PM)
My own review is on the ReactOS forums if anyone wants to know exactly what it's like – no pictures, because I haven't installed any screenshot or image manipulation software yet, but anyway... http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2016
Anyway, just thought I might point out that it works on real machines just as well as, or in some cases even better than, on a virtual machine.
Slashdot Effect - Flashback (Score:1)
Anyway, would it be totally wrong to compare the creation of reactOS (and in some ways Wine) to what was done before the creation of a Posix standard?
I mean, I'm not really prepared in this kind of "ancient history" (!), yet I seem to remember there were some efforts to rev engineer the early unix syscalls in order to build compatible environments.
I hope this is not completely OT, I seem to remember having read something about this, yet I can't remember when and where (damn early-morning/late-night surfing sessions
ReactOS Desktop in Linux/Wine (Score:3, Interesting)
Then a Wine Desktop could be running in its own virtual terminal.
One could also create a Wine/Linux distribution, to create another free windows development/run environment.
A Wine/Linux distribution would use Linux drivers. This currently would have an advantage over ReactOS,
as ReactOS is limited to use blob windows drivers, or a few open source drivers.
If you can successfully run the ReactOS desktop in Wine, please share. I have tried it a few times (running ROS exploerer.exe desktop in Wine), but it is not quite usable.
Win98 EOL (Score:3, Insightful)
Code Audit (Score:1)
(http://concentrationstudios.com/ | Last Journal: Friday December 24 2004, @12:05PM)
ReactOS is GOD... (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Saturday November 10, @03:30PM)
Seriously, by the time vista comes out, People may very well start ditching Microsoft and start using ReactOS. I intend to once the next release of ReactOS comes out, at least for a nice long trial for major testing.
ReactOS - VirtualPC - Debian (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.storix.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday August 20 2006, @03:39PM)
What about native Linux app support? (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.savagewar.co.uk/)
Whoops - they've been Slashdotted! (Score:1)
(http://www.softballjones.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday February 28 2007, @03:54PM)
Article offline 2:06pm EST (Score:2, Funny)
This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.
BR Which is a shame as it was a good read and very interesting (as I had not previously heard of ReactOS).
Drivers (Score:2)
(http://runefox.net/)
Virtual PC? (Score:2)
Okay, ReactOS is nice... (Score:1)
works quite ok in vmware (dapper host) (Score:1)
(http://www.flamerobin.org/)
It crashed a lot (many BSODs) and was slow but is interesting that it works
Think of it as wine++ , it's an open source alternative to windows with many things left to be done
I guess is good for hackers who want to learn more about windows os iternals
Is it secure? (Score:1)
(http://frem.wordpress.com/)
What is the security model like? Is this thing going to inherit all the viruses, spyware and adware that normal Windows users have to put up with?
Eh... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/~Vorondil28 | Last Journal: Tuesday March 21 2006, @10:47PM)
I do appreciate the lack of "punch the monkey" adds, but it's still a pretty fluffy review. To sum up:
- Really cool idea.
- App computability is spotty.
- Networking blows.
- The interface looks spiffy.
- Project has promise.
I'm not sure if I even need to install a copy of it to write that much. I did think the insight on the development process on page two was interesting, but overall I think "ReactOS Reviewed in Depth" is a bit of an overstatement.Re:Perfect Platform: Linux + ReactOS under XEN vir (Score:1)