SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Softpedia reports
The ReactOS project recently showcased on YouTube [that it's] possible to virtualize the Mac OS X 10.4 operating system on their free and open-source Windows alternative operating system.
Our "Watch" series of articles continues today with a very interesting one where you can see Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger running inside the ReactOS computer operating system, which we believe has come a long way, and it's beginning to look like a viable alternative to Microsoft's Windows 7 or Vista operating systems, perfect for desktop computers and laptops.
The latest release, ReactOS 0.4.8, showed us last month that it's now possible to use Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows Vista software on the free and open-source operating system that's binary compatible with computer programs and device drivers made for Windows.
It also introduced initial support for reading data from NTFS formatted drives, a new app similar to the DrWatson32 software for Windows, some user-visible changes like support for balloon notifications in the system tray area, and support for unmounting network drives directly from the file explorer.
The video is available on YouTube
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ledow on Friday May 11 2018, @08:21AM (2 children)
They've just put in NTFS support.
The first public version of NTFS came out in 1993.
5 years from now you won't have a free open-source Windows-compatible OS, if it takes them 25 years to get a filesystem in there (one that's been in Linux and other OS for quite a while with several implementations over the years).
Oh, and that's only "reading".
ReactOS will be perpetually playing catchup. It's never been at the point where an arbitrary program (for any version of Windows) stood a chance of working vaguely like it would on real Windows, in its entire existence.
By the time you get to the point that it could run, say, even a Wine-amount of Windows 7/8 software, then you'll be talking about an OS that will be four or five versions behind the things people are buying computers with. And with Windows 10's "no big versions, just lots of updates", it'll become impossible to track the changing API.
ReactOS literally never get the funding, support, or development to make a difference. Wine actually had commercial partners (Crossover, Transgaming, etc.) and still doesn't come close. And ReactOS is doing the hard part - the OS integration and compatibility (including hardware drivers, antique processor modes, etc.) - rather than just piggybacking on Linux.
I speak as someone who did buy Crossover several times and used it for years. It was actually more feasible to use OpenOffice (as was) than it was to hope that Crossover would allow Office to get as far into the documents as I needed. Support for that particular version of Office is better now but I couldn't speak at all for how modern Office works on Crossover any more. I gave up when I realised that I used Libreoffice every time. And that's one of their BEST supported apps.
I'm of the opinion that 25 years of playing catch-up to a binary OS is a lost cause in an era of platform independence and browser-focus. 1/3rd of my games on Steam are Linux-compatible (more even than Mac). The major browsers are all cross-platform. Hell, you can get Office for Android.
ReactOS is the MAME of the OS industry. Fine for preservation, archiving, compatibility with things so obsolete they don't even work on modern PC's even. But unlike MAME, it's only a homage, not a product you can base anything on (licence issues aside). I consider ReactOS to be "FreeDOS / DOSBox for Windows". Except even those programs have a huge amount of guaranteed compatibility with any random DOS program you might want to throw at it that it's never seen before.
Honestly, by the time ReactOS is just a "download, install, run" kind of thing, it'll be our kids saying "Oh, yeah, I remember having to install programs... look man, they have the version of Skype before Microsoft messed it up".
I'm not even sure I approve of ReactOS being mentioned in the same kind of way as Wine at all. Wine appears WAY ahead of the game and ReactOS feels like someone saying "I'll work on this bit of Wine (hardware interface / OS layer) which is outside the main scope, for nostalgia purposes".
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Friday May 11 2018, @04:20PM
We use Lync at work. It's already like that. Skype is messed up.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Friday May 11 2018, @05:44PM
Please note until recently, they were fairly unpolished and had very few contributors. They recently switched to github and have for the past few years been coordinating with the Wine dev team. Or at least stealing from and I assume adding to Wine dev. I've not really looked into it very much. Yes, they will "always be playing catch-up" to a certain degree, but they're trying to do something very useful. I would love me a free OS that can run all of the games from today and earlier. I assure you, Windows isn't working on that, because they don't care about old games. They don't care about old software. They don't care that you have a perfectly usable Thinkpad A21m or three sitting in your office. They want your money, money, money.
Comparing ReactOS to Wine. Is like comparing an Arcade Machine with MAME. One was developed to run things natively, the other was developed to run things in a sandbox.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"