ReactOS

[helterskelter]

Looks like some competition for Winders and LINUX ?

M/soft should worry,not sure about Linux though.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14899507

eddie

[craig10x]

From what i've read about it, ReactOS as been around for years now and they have never been able to produce a final version of it yet...(it's been around since at least 2004 and is still in ALPHA)...while an interesting project, i suspect it will likely never "get off the ground"

[rich_roast]

Putin ordered his government to go open source late last year. It's interesting that they've opted for a GPL offering compatibility with Windows... seems like a natural choice in context.

[hinto]

What a boondoggle http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boondoggle+

I downloaded it (ReactOS) and ran it in vmplayer.... Nothing useful is there. Granted it boots fast, but not much after that.
-H

[Carl]

Been around for quite a while with very slow development.. to be honest it doesn't run much either Microsft has very little to fear from ReactOS

[Habitual]

that has been in development for over a decade...

2 cans and a string would be faster.

[Carl]

Oh and it would also get sued the hell out of, there's no way Microsoft would ever let this come to market

[grey1960envoy]

I have actually installed this on an old box that ran win 2000 and found that I was waiting for the BSOD so I pulled the HDD and put one in containing win 98 Still got it loaded (the beauty of having a plethora of old computers kicking around) and intend to keep it that way.

[hinto]

...but what do you do with it after you install it?
-H

[Midnighter]

Installed and ran fine in Virtualbox, but actual install resulted in black screen, with nothing working. Odd. Handy for some (if it would work), but mostly useless if it won't run properly. Definitely nice concept tho, particularly for those who need win apps, and wine won't cut it.

[hinto]

I installed in a vmware guest, but then there was nothing to do. no network browsing, no browser. I assume you can install something like IE, but I quickly lost interest.
-H

[Midnighter]

I installed in a vmware guest, but then there was nothing to do. no network browsing, no browser. I assume you can install something like IE, but I quickly lost interest.
-H

There's a reason the iso is only 60MB. Open the ReactOS Applications manager, and install stuff from there (browser, etc). Very lightweight and fast, and (as i said) a nice concept, but it does need more work.

[DrHu]

Looks like some competition for Winders and LINUX ?

No chance on that!!!

That development,even if it succeeded would not appeal to Linux users, and why would it appeal to windows OS users, they already have their native versions available, and it does come installed when they buy a new PC or notebook, so nothing to miss for them..

Also that development has been alpha for so long, it is embarrassing..

Whenever I look for alternative for windows, I use Linux, but if I should even look, I would be trying haiku (open source redevelopment of Beos), and I did have Beos 5x version before Beos imploded, and like it very much, especially their tracker application..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS
--there is a free version of beos, 5x home, however the Hailku version install better on newer hardware
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku_(operating_system)

Other OSs' such as Amiga, didn't appeal, because of the crude drawer animations for folders etc, or OS/2, even if there two-way links were interesting, the GUI look was quite crude..

[xenopeek]

ReactOS is big in Russia, and recently presented to the Russian president: http://www.reactos.org/en/news_page_67.html

But I personally don't need Windows compatibility, and don't see this as a long-term solution. Though it might be for others and I'm happy there is something like this for them. Using the great alternativeTo website I've years ago replaced all my Windows software with Linux native solutions.

But yeah, Haiku is shaping up nicely and worth a look

[DrHu]

But yeah, Haiku is shaping up nicely and worth a look

For a desktop OS, that would be my only other choice (speedy..)
--although it is less than likely that there might be native drivers for that OS, eg nvidia etc..

Yes, I like it as well, but its development is definitely taking some time, although they are on the right path
--just fix the package managers

In fact I do have it running on its own partition, and just like the original Beos, fast boot gets me a desktop ready to run..

Next step would be multi-user mode, now that may take some time, even if the underpinnings are there, and hopefully they don't get diverted to the any and all themes support that is endemic within the Linux, windows and OSX worlds for the fans of each..
--bebits is of course available, as well as haiku's own repository

You know what used to be big in Russia previously: Pick OS
--a quite interesting and useful DB based OS system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick_operating_system
http://www.openafs.org/
--another system or system part (OS..) that I find interesting: async file system, heh isn't that what cloud computing sorta emulates these days ? (falls into the there is nothing new under the sun , category..)

[Phil Dodd]

I tried it ( version ...13 ) a fortnight ago. I used a 2 GB compact flash card as my target disk drive in the machine, which speeded things up considerably. I have one of those PATA compact flash adapters. Unfortunately is came to a stumbling block when it firstly wanted a driver for the ( standard ) ethernet card, and then wouldn't read the driver from the CD-ROM issued with the card. So for me, it was not much use and I've scrapped that experiment, but you may have more luck.

I note from the Reactos website that the 2011 Google Summer Of Code has had some Reactos projects going, so perhaps that will speed things up a bit for them ?

I have to agree with everyone above, that as it progresses, Reactos will face an increasing likelihood of litigation challenges from other software sources, who will fight their corner to protect their interests.

[grey1960envoy]

Had some problems with a firewire driver (kept freezing up) THAT is what will interest windoze users for sure all that is needed now is the BSOD to complete the effect