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ReactOS is a free and open source implementation of the Windows NT architecture, which intends to provide support for existing applications and drivers, outside of the control of Microsoft.
The release of ReactOS 0.4 brings improved file system support, including native, out-of-the-box support for ext2, ext3, and ext4, as well as read-only support for NTFS.
Additionally, the bundled version of UniATA was updated to add better support for SATA and PATA devices. Support was generally improved for third-party device drivers, making it substantially easier to install and use real hardware, as opposed to just virtual machines like VirtualBox.
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Release of ReactOS 0.4 Brings Open Source Windows Closer to Reality
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Q: Why did the lone ranger kill Tonto?
A: He found out what "kimosabe" really means.
(Score: 3, Informative) by jummama on Wednesday February 17 2016, @07:25PM
https://www.reactos.org/project-news/reactos-040-released [reactos.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @07:36PM
The linked article has background info on ReactOS that is not in the release notes.
Not all of us are up to speed on obscure OSes.
(Score: 3, Touché) by jummama on Wednesday February 17 2016, @07:41PM
Multiple links can be placed into the story.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:26PM
Then I suggest you submit the story next time and do it exactly the way you think it ought to be done.
For a guy who has never submitted a single story you seem really intent on looking a gift horse in the mouth.
(Score: 2) by jummama on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:45PM
It was just a suggestion, and I was also providing that link as an extra detail. No need to get aggressive about it.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:02PM
Sorry man, your post came across as passive-aggressive and I try to avoid being passive as much as possible.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by jummama on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:34PM
Didn't mean to come across that way. I can respect that.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday February 17 2016, @07:32PM
Back when ReactOS was announced, I had high hopes for the project. It's been so long, I've more or less forgotten about them. It would be great if they can do Windows better than Microsoft can do Windows. Maybe I need to download it, and try it. Whatever I find on the test drive, I sure wish them luck.
ICE is having a Pretti Good season.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Dunbal on Wednesday February 17 2016, @07:33PM
Yeah, Windows without telemetry would be nice.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by bob_super on Wednesday February 17 2016, @07:43PM
I call that Linux Mint.
I rarely need Windows-specific applications, though.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:33PM
What kind of a troll would mod that post "troll"?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Thursday February 18 2016, @05:43AM
No variant of Linux will run the $40000+ of proprietary software that I need to do my job. And no, there is no open software that even pretends to be comparable.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @08:23AM
Use your work PC for work and personal PC for personal stuff. That way you don't need to worry about telemetry.
Then make the company pay for your Windows license. Their software, their problem.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:03PM
They're really giving the HURD guys a run for their money now! And, by the way, WINE does quite a good job these days.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday February 18 2016, @05:44AM
WINE is useless for CADCAM.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 1) by DannyB on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:22PM
Similar story here. When I first heard of ReactOS, I thought, wow what an idea.
It's been so long that now I think: why would I want to use Windows again?
For some odd reason all scientific instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed away from Earth.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Thursday February 18 2016, @12:10AM
Its interesting to read the wiki article on it, and all the infighting and bickering that has been going on.
Almost none of the delay had anything to do with interference by Microsoft, it was all their own paranoia.
They even had Wine refusing to talk to them for a while.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Daiv on Thursday February 18 2016, @07:32PM
You say interesting, I say frustrating as all hell. I've been following this project since Windows Vista released, hoping to keep my Windows 98 "Classic" interface, but the stability of XP going without depending on support from Microsoft. I believe this still has a ton of potential to gain users, especially with people learning about Windows 10 and their privacy, but if this project had made more progress 5-6 years ago, instead of bickering, it would be pulling in new users like crazy right now.
My computing is firmly stuck in a 10-ish year old routine. I don't play games newer than Civilization IV. This OS fits what I am looking for perfectly and I believe I could convert my elder family (and extended family) over to this (along with all their PITA Windows 3.1/95 games they require) with minimal fuss. A lot easier than any version of Linux/Unix or BSD. I've tried lending them various laptops with all kinds of other OS's and the longest anyone used one was 18 minutes over the 6 months I lent it to them. Apparently, they used their phone to surf when necessary and requested all their bills to revert to paper billing. The other people did all their bill paying and web surfing at work and just waited for their new computer to come to do anything.
WOW! I just went to the site, and while the old site was dated, this new site is a total turnoff. I guess if that's the price I have to pay to get some progress, I'll have to take it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday February 17 2016, @11:58PM
Just took it for a spin. Still needs a lot of work so I donated 20€. Not much but why not? Its a lot of hard work they are doing for free. Anyways, I installed it in the latest Virtualbox on a Win 7 host. Set the OS to XP and keep the default settings for XP, maybe bump the RAM to 512+ and the video memory to 32M. In the old blue nightmare NT installer, make sure you select a higher VESA video setting. I used 1280x1024x32. Installed without a hitch and booted to desktop. The virtualbox guest additions Installed without a hitch. Then you have a delemma. You need a browser. Palemoon Atom/XP and opera installers were both corrupt. Not even going to try Firefox or Chrome. My next move was to try and install Cygwin which worked and downloaded all the packages but locked up the whole VM halfway through installing. Like I said, long, long way to go. But for someone like me who both wants and needs an XP replacement (industrial use), Ill keep my eye on it.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday February 18 2016, @05:47AM
I need a Win7 replacement with robust OpenGL.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:03PM
Over 12 years of development and they're already at 0.4? Hurd developers better look out, they're catching up on you!
(Score: 3, Funny) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:59PM
ouch, that hurds!
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:08PM
While the story says Windows NT architecture, which version of Windows is it they are trying to be compatible with now? It started out as a Win95 clone back in the day, then it was w2000 and then XP. Are they now shooting for Win 7, 8 or 10? For normal windows you can usually just run it in compatibility mode and select a previous lower version. Normally this shouldn't be all that much of an issue but it seems that Microsoft has plans in their desires to bring everyone to Windows 10. What are they shooting for? It used to be somewhat clear on their homepage but the new and improved website seems a bit vague on the topic. Nothing about it in the FAQ as far as I can tell. Shall one just assume it's always trying to be compatible with the latest version?
(Score: 4, Informative) by turgid on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:31PM
The last version of Windows that wasn't Windows NT architecture was ME IIRC. Everything since XP has been NT architecture i.e. the protected-mode microkernel-based OS designed by the VMS guy [wikipedia.org].
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @07:58PM
XP is only a minor version increment from windows 2000, which was NT5.
XP is literally NT 5.1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Microsoft_Windows_versions [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday February 18 2016, @08:11PM
Ah yes, XP was supposed to be the one-size-fits all Windows based on NT where home users could migrate off of the old DOS-derived ones (95, 98, ME).
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:14PM
If you want to use windoze, use windoze.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:26PM
the worst part is them re-writing the 15 year old version of Windows....[NT 4]
...and it still uses WINE to do anything.
I don't get it either.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:51PM
You don't have much of a clue about operating systems, do you?
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:30PM
No thanks. Win doze is a slur against DOS-based Windows. There hasn't been a version of Windows this century that has needed DOS. Your insult has passed end-of-life. Upgrade to NT, please.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:41PM
what a 20 year old snarky joke does not seem funny anymore? the hell you say!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:18PM
:) I, amongst countless others, didn't realize 'doze' was for DOS-based versions... maybe it is time to update the slur then to Win-spy.
For your new computer, would you like to run FruitLock, WinSpy or Penguin?
Penguin please.
Ok, but do watch out for icebergs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @11:48PM
I assume you mean systemd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @08:19AM
I assume you mean systemd.
Yes. I propose the operating system formerly called by pedants, GNU/Linux, be re-branded as, Systemd/Linux with GNU.
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Wednesday February 17 2016, @11:52PM
I can still use Micro$oft though right? What about Winblows?
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @12:53AM
I've never heard that interpretation before. I always assumed that the implication was that Windows could be so slow that a user could doze off while waiting for the hourglass (or its successor, the spinner) to go away.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_wait_cursor [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @08:39AM
I think you are confusing Windoze with WinDOS. WinDOS was the term used for the old DOS-based Windows versions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by tangomargarine on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:44PM
Because not even Windows supports parts of its own back library anymore. I have several 2000-ish programs that worked fine up through Windows 7, but since 8 won't even run in compatibility mode.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:15PM
The TechRepublic article mentions Win32 multiple times.
There's this recent item as well WRT 16-bit APIs:
Wine Staging 1.9.3 Adds Compatibility Fixes for a Bunch of Older Windows Games [softpedia.com]
As the WINE and ReactOS projects have considerable cross-pollination WRT source code, if that stuff hasn't made it into ReactOS yet ("Staging" == beta), it should soon.
I mentioned the antiX crew the other day and how much they get done despite the small number of people involved.
The ReactOS crew is another small bunch that is impressive.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:51PM
How about VB5/6 programs to control industrial lasers via serial that wont work on > Win7. Gimme an opensource alternative that is 2000/XP compatible, runs on modern hardware, perhaps more secure, supports some new features and I'm sold. My shop is still running DOS, Win 2k and XP to keep the machines humming. Upgrading is ether technically or financially infeasible. It is easier and cheaper to keep a stock of old hardware that works.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @07:54AM
Try it? Get virtual box and put it on a new computer and test it out. I don't think anyone here can say if it works or not, unless someone knows for sure it will not run VB5/6 programs.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:17PM
I'm surprised that ten minutes of google searching and I can't find a compatibility list.
No I'm not demanding support or demanding a volunteer make one.
I'm just surprised, I can't possibly be the first person to think of this.
With absolutely nothing as a guide, I'm curious what works. Maybe thats the secret to lure people in, get them to try it... don't tell no one nothin' and they'll uncontrollably have to try it.
Personally I'd be interested in weird hardware support. Obscure software that programs radios by directly flipping parallel port hardware bits. Obscure software that programs eproms by doing unthinkable undocumented things over a USB port. Stuff like that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:23PM
http://appdb.winehq.org/ [winehq.org]
If you like, think of ReactOS as a kernel for Wine.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:40PM
He means hardware support, not software support.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:47PM
Works with nothing. It said read-only support for NTFS - enough said.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:51PM
And full read-write support for ext* filesystems. You only care about NTFS if you've already got a windows partition on the system.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:30PM
Or if you want to access an NTFS-formatted external disk.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:17PM
You only care about NTFS if you've already got a windows partition on the system.
Or if you want to access an NTFS-formatted external disk
...that you haven't yet gotten around to reformatting as ext4 :)
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @04:05AM
Yeah most of us want the filesystem not to corrupt itself.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday February 18 2016, @05:08AM
Some people could get angry if you reformatted their external disk to a file system their operating system cannot read. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Thursday February 18 2016, @06:59AM
Some people could get angry if you reformatted their external disk to a file system their operating system cannot read. ;-)
But... but... the instructions said windows 7 or better, so surely changing their operating system is doing them a favour?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday February 18 2016, @10:44AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:03PM
Hardware support is going to be critical. A lot of the people who are still using XP or have to use a specific version of Windows do so because of hardware required for the software they run, things like X-ray units in dentist offices or specialized servers for CNC program files in machine shops. Over the years I've encountered literally dozens of situations where the only thing keeping a client on Windows was because the application AND hardware they had to use would only work on Windows. They really wanted to get off Windows but since they had to have Windows for the specialized software they didn't see the point in having to have two computers around where one would do the job just as well.
If ReactOS can use drivers for proprietary hardware that were written for Windows then it really has a chance to capture those users, if not you can forget about it.
As someone else pointed out ReactOS has been in development for 12 years and they are still in beta, at best. During that time WINE has evolved to the point it can handle a lot of, formally, Windows only software. Not all of it and not perfectly, but the list of supported software is large and growing. The only real stumbling for WINE is the hardware support.
(Score: 2) by Post-Nihilist on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:52PM
ReactOS use mainline Wine for userland since 2009. So all that WINE maturation has also benefited ReactOS
Be like us, be different, be a nihilist!!!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:41PM
I'm surprised that ten minutes of google searching and I can't find a compatibility list.
maybe you just suck at internet. https://www.reactos.org/wiki/PC_ROS_Rigs [reactos.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday February 18 2016, @01:43PM
Close; something like this
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Games_ROS_Testing [reactos.org]
But not for games.
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Thursday February 18 2016, @02:54PM
wait, you want a software compatibility list?! not terribly difficult to find but out of date. https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Testing_Central [reactos.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday February 19 2016, @01:14PM
Ugh, look at that name. You can tell its a microsoft emulator. Right out of the same ecosystem that thinks "Excel" is the first word that comes to mind when you're looking for a spreadsheet program.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday February 17 2016, @11:56PM
"As ReactOS is still in alpha stage development, we encourage would-be testers to first try it out on a virtual machine before taking the plunge with real hardware. Of course regardless of whether you do a physical or virtual install there are some basic requirements to keep in mind.
x86 processor, Pentium-class or newer
96MB of RAM, 256MB recommended
650MB of free space minimum, 5GB+ recommended if you intend to do testing
VGA compatible graphics card, VESA BIOS 2.0+
For virtual machines, the team recommends the following." Virtual Box, VMWare, and Qemu are the recommended virtual machines. https://reactos.org/installing-reactos [reactos.org]
The requirements are pretty low. Compatibility at this point may also be pretty low, because it's in Alpha. While they have made a good deal of progress, they are far from finished. This is as close to a "compatibility list" software wise as they have https://reactos.org/gallery [reactos.org] The original post on the reactos site which was linked to on the first comment lists what has been introduced. Basic things like USB Support. A fairly notable lack of compatibility is the fact that NTFS support is Read Only. I've kept one eye on ReactOS for a while, but they're still not quite there on Basic things. So, check back in a year or two. This is an Alpha level Operating System that's pretty much trying to do the same thing that FreeDOS did, but for Windows. It's going to take a while and so long as they keep at it I'm sure they'll get there eventually.
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"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 18 2016, @12:03AM
Looking at a post above mine I was able to find this link too: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Supported_Hardware [reactos.org]
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"
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday February 18 2016, @02:14AM
This is an Alpha level Operating System that's pretty much trying to do the same thing that FreeDOS did, but for Windows.
I took a very brief look at it several years ago. Now admittedly I did not expend any great effort, but all I was able to bring up was a DOS prompt.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 18 2016, @11:12PM
I have successfully booted ReactOS into a Windows like environment many times. Though, most of the time I use Virtual Box. I'm waiting for it to hit Beta, before I really start to mess with it. Alpha Open Source = Test this for us, it's broken, we know it, and could you fix some stuff for us while you're at it? Beta Open Source = Test this for us, let us know if you find something broken, and enjoy. Release Open Source = We've let you beat our software with a stick and it seems we've fixed all the bugs; Enjoy.
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"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @12:51AM
There is a list on the project's wiki:
https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Supported_Hardware [reactos.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @12:57AM
RTFT fail on my part, sorry for the redundant post.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @08:35PM
I use Linux because, just like everyone else here, I am a faggot penguin fucker.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday February 17 2016, @09:11PM
Seriously, if they want people to adopt it they need to pick a use case and actually make that work. From there they can add more. But with twenty years (roughly) of effort they still can't point to ONE use case where they can stand behind it and say, "Yes that will work."
One piece of hardware abandoned by Microsoft and/or the OEM that the drivers load in ReactOS and usable software to drive it is known to reliably run. One obsolete piece of software that won't run on a supported Windows any longer that successfully runs on ReactOS.
It is all just "try it and see what works. And if it stops working on the next point release, submit a patch or go away."
Twenty years.
It is a already a project for 'retro computing' and it isn't in a stable form yet. And worse it shows no sign that it will get to one before some of the original devs are in a retirement home.
Their problem is a lot of people think what they are doing is "neat" but their itch isn't annoying enough to induce them to join in and help scratch it. The last few Windows versions should have been enough warning to frighten more people over but it didn't. The sheep don't care and the smart ones already left for the fruit or the penguin years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 17 2016, @10:02PM
Here:
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=12238&cid=305943 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @04:09AM
They were asking what it can definitively do now. Not a bunch ifs that it might eventually be able to do
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Wednesday February 17 2016, @11:40PM
For those couple of things that actually need "real" Windows to run I'm still using Vista inside Virtualbox.
It just works, and if I change machines or do a major upgrade of Mint I just copy over the VB folder that contains it.
Beyond that everything that I need (with one or two specific additions) comes out of the box with Mint.
Things may have been different five or ten years ago, but somehow this really does feel like a solution in search of a problem.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Thursday February 18 2016, @01:41AM
I'd assume there's lots of appliances running historic Windows versions. Particularly "Windows Embedded POSReady 2009", which effectlvely is XP SP3, might be a target for that. If there's an appliance doing one thing, and it does it with ReactOS, but not with "Windows Embedded POSReady 7" (or is just cheaper with ReactOS), they might get a foot into the door.
Not long ago, I have consulted for a customer with an industrial solution stuck on W2K that wouldn't even work properly under XP. I was part of a task force to figure out what could be done to be able to continue with the product. In the end, none of the "proper" re-engineering suggestions was chosen; the software was just stuck into a virtual machine that still would run W2K on modern hardware.
I'd imagine that ReactOS could be made to fit in such situations and save the hassle with 2 Windows versions and one virtual machine to support while being (past the initial effort) at zero cost.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 18 2016, @07:07AM
Fork of NT 4 and Windows 2000 Source Code leak, compiles and works! Dubious legality, though.
Their main site is currently down. Strangely, not due to M$ suing them into oblivion, but simply a failure to renew the domain name on time.
Archive link, file downloads still work, too: https://web.archive.org/web/20151203004051/http://www.opennt.net/ [archive.org]
I thought this was interesting. Still would like to see ReactOS continue, as I think they can surpass the original code quality if developer infighting would cease.