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Ask Soylent: Can We Turn ReactOS into a Viable Alternative to Windows 10?

posted by n1 on Wednesday October 21 2015, @09:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-put-a-man-on-the-moon,-but-we-wont-do-that dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

Microsoft's telemetry features in Windows 10 are a privacy advocate's nightmare. Now that Microsoft is trying to back port these "features" into existing versions of Windows, it seems like many of us have no future upgrade path. Sure there is Linux, but I have some older Windows software that I still want to use. ReactOS is still out there, but does not look like there have been any updates in a while.

Does the Soylent community believe it is possible to get this project going full steam to producing a useable alternative for existing Windows users?

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:19PM

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:19PM (#252953) Journal

    I have kept an eye on ReactOS for the better part of a decade. It's an interesting concept, but it's Still Alpha quality. Definition of Alpha: "If it it works, it's a fluke. Please standby while we break it again." There are only a handful of people that are developing ReactOS. They have grown slightly over the years and they are being careful not to contaminate their code with Microsoft Sources. I would be very happy, if they were able to get something stable released. That hope still seems to be fairly distant. Could the project be helped by more people? Sure, that's how every other OS gets quicker updates. More hands makes lighter work. ReactOS isn't being developed like your standard Linux OS. They are trying to create code that is compatible with Windows at the lowest levels. With Linux, you can come up with a great idea and run with it. ReactOS isn't about interesting / creative ideas. It's about poking this feature 2,512 different ways until you come up with something that works. Just because it seems to work, doesn't mean that it's right either. One tiny flaw could screw the entire thing up and you'd have to go back to the drawing board. I just don't see a whole lot of people getting on the ReactOS bus of coding masochism.

    --
    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"
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  • (Score: 2) by moondoctor on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:32PM

    by moondoctor (2963) on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:32PM (#252960)

    I shudder to think at the amount of work necessary to make an environment that would run After Effects for Windows 10...

    • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Wednesday October 21 2015, @11:16PM

      by NotSanguine (285) <{NotSanguine} {at} {SoylentNews.Org}> on Wednesday October 21 2015, @11:16PM (#252977) Homepage Journal

      I shudder to think at the amount of work necessary to make an environment that would run After Effects for Windows 10...

      If you feel that way, I suggest you direct your pity in the direction of Redmond. :)

      --
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by jdavidb on Thursday October 22 2015, @02:26PM

    by jdavidb (5690) on Thursday October 22 2015, @02:26PM (#253238) Homepage Journal

    I just don't see a whole lot of people getting on the ReactOS bus of coding masochism

    I wonder if getting up to speed at that kind of masochism could lead to a career anywhere. I would think a programmer who can do that would be able to tackle just about any problem.

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