ReactOS

vasa1 · 07. Apr 2010, 12:45 PM

Talking of WinXP, has anyone heard of this?

Quote:

ReactOS® is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows-NT® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture.
The main goal of the ReactOS project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This will allow your Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward. The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow you to remove Windows® and install ReactOS without the end user noticing the change.

Please bear in mind that ReactOS 0.3.11 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is not recommended for everyday use.

Link

HeWhoRocks · 07. Apr 2010, 01:09 PM

Interesting but when looking at their site i see they have no long term plan for this OS and no idea when it will exit the alpha stage. By the time this comes out of beta stage you wont be able to give genuine XP away it will be so outdated, so i'm not sure i see the point. They do however have a BIG green donate money facility on their main page

. I also checked the compatibility list and you're fine as long as you only want to run anything designed around the same time Stonehenge was built. Thanks for posting though, it was interesting.

sa1 · 07. Apr 2010, 01:51 PM

It was a valiant effort but ultimately lack of ntfs support is a very strong weak point. Though I must say that ReactOS has contributed fairly to the WINE project and vice-versa. At least WINE is becoming more and more usable.

J_L · 14. May 2010, 12:03 AM

Tried it out, very interesting.

Had problems installing the VMware Graphics Driver, it cannot detect it within newer versions of VMware-tools. Then used the pre-installed image, but the ReactOS Application Manager would be stuck downloading its list. Pinging Google works fine.
Fixed that by changing Network Adapter to NAT and upgrading to ReactOS-0.3.11-CLT2010. Told me to reboot to finished installing a driver, and finally everything works.

Wonder why it didn't come with a web browser pre-installed. Anyways installed Opera, worked fine for while, but it suddenly froze when I tried to type something on the address bar. Couldn't close the process.

Next, I tried Firefox 2 (just wanted to revisit it). It works fine even on this site.

Overall it's definitely not feature-complete and the software is somewhat lacking, but they've done a good job of it so far. Like the idea of an open-source Windows.

Doobie · 14. May 2010, 02:34 AM

ReactOS will never be a suitable user OS. They're as far from a Windows replacement today as they were 10 years ago. Windows is a moving target and they're not catching up. Even if by some miracle they actually come out with a working Windows clone in a few years, the OS is becoming irrelevant. God bless them for trying, but it's an exercise in vanity.

Ritho · 14. May 2010, 06:46 AM

Quote:

God bless them for trying, but it's an exercise in vanity.

Well as sa1 commented above, it is not all futility, as the technologies they are using under the hood have bettered WINE for Linux a lot and I am amazed by the amount of Windows software that will run on Linux because of contributions by developers like those behind React OS an others.

MidnightCowboy · 14. May 2010, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ritho

Well as sa1 commented above, it is not all futility, as the technologies they are using under the hood have bettered WINE for Linux a lot and I am amazed by the amount of Windows software that will run on Linux because of contributions by developers like those behind React OS an others.

This is very true. A lot of of folks don't agree with, or see any point in, sending space shuttles into orbit but I bet they all use something in their home containing spin off technologies derived from this program

Anupam · 03. Aug 2011, 02:57 PM

I decided to give ReactOS a spin today. I downloaded ReactOS 0.3.13 alpha from their site... both the live CD version, and the installable disk version.

I tried the live CD on a fairly new computer with Core 2 Duo, and other new components. It booted fine from the live CD, but after showing loading files, it just stops, and does nothing.

I then tried to install it on the same computer, but an old spare HDD. This time I used the installable CD. It won't even boot up with that. It just kept on the language screen, and the keyboard just stops responding.

Then, I decided to install it on an old system running P-III, and 512 MB SDRAM. There, it booted up fine, and gave all the options for installing similar to Windows, but when it came to installing on the HDD, it failed. Prior to actual installation, there were some warning that, first, it does not recognize NTFS system yet. Further, there were some warnings about partitions not being recognized/deleted etc.

So, the old HDD had old Windows on it, with NTFS partition, and another small partition of 16 MB. It deleted the NTFS partition, but then refused to recognize it, and won't let me choose it, so as to let me install on it. It kept showing the 16 MB one for installation, but that is just not possible.

I gave up finally. Maybe the live CD will work on this system, but for that I have to erase the DVD-RW(have just one) again, and go through the trouble of writing the live CD image on it. I am not up for that trouble.

Overall, it failed badly for me. I was not even able to see what it looked and felt like.

I just hope that in the end, its a usable product.

Rizar · 03. Aug 2011, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MidnightCowboy

This is very true. A lot of of folks don't agree with, or see any point in, sending space shuttles into orbit but I bet they all use something in their home containing spin off technologies derived from this program

Good example!

MidnightCowboy · 04. Aug 2011, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anupam

.

Overall, it failed badly for me. I was not even able to see what it looked and felt like.

I just hope that in the end, its a usable product.

From what I see, it seems what is holding this group back is money.
Naturally most of the talent that is this way inclined is already committed to one Linux project or another.

I don't subscribe to the fact that it's trying to revive an already dead system, because XP is only dead because MS brought out W7 and told us it was

07. Apr 2010, 01:09 PM	#2 (permalink)
HeWhoRocks Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Mostly planet Earth Posts: 323	Interesting but when looking at their site i see they have no long term plan for this OS and no idea when it will exit the alpha stage. By the time this comes out of beta stage you wont be able to give genuine XP away it will be so outdated, so i'm not sure i see the point. They do however have a BIG green donate money facility on their main page. I also checked the compatibility list and you're fine as long as you only want to run anything designed around the same time Stonehenge was built. Thanks for posting though, it was interesting.

03. Aug 2011, 02:57 PM	#8 (permalink)
Anupam Super Moderator Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: India Posts: 15,345	I decided to give ReactOS a spin today. I downloaded ReactOS 0.3.13 alpha from their site... both the live CD version, and the installable disk version. I tried the live CD on a fairly new computer with Core 2 Duo, and other new components. It booted fine from the live CD, but after showing loading files, it just stops, and does nothing. I then tried to install it on the same computer, but an old spare HDD. This time I used the installable CD. It won't even boot up with that. It just kept on the language screen, and the keyboard just stops responding. Then, I decided to install it on an old system running P-III, and 512 MB SDRAM. There, it booted up fine, and gave all the options for installing similar to Windows, but when it came to installing on the HDD, it failed. Prior to actual installation, there were some warning that, first, it does not recognize NTFS system yet. Further, there were some warnings about partitions not being recognized/deleted etc. So, the old HDD had old Windows on it, with NTFS partition, and another small partition of 16 MB. It deleted the NTFS partition, but then refused to recognize it, and won't let me choose it, so as to let me install on it. It kept showing the 16 MB one for installation, but that is just not possible. I gave up finally. Maybe the live CD will work on this system, but for that I have to erase the DVD-RW(have just one) again, and go through the trouble of writing the live CD image on it. I am not up for that trouble. Overall, it failed badly for me. I was not even able to see what it looked and felt like. I just hope that in the end, its a usable product. __________________ Anupam

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07. Apr 2010, 01:51 PM	#3 (permalink)
sa1 Full Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 69	It was a valiant effort but ultimately lack of ntfs support is a very strong weak point. Though I must say that ReactOS has contributed fairly to the WINE project and vice-versa. At least WINE is becoming more and more usable.

14. May 2010, 12:03 AM	#4 (permalink)
J_L Co-Author, Best Free Security List Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 2,003	Tried it out, very interesting. Had problems installing the VMware Graphics Driver, it cannot detect it within newer versions of VMware-tools. Then used the pre-installed image, but the ReactOS Application Manager would be stuck downloading its list. Pinging Google works fine. Fixed that by changing Network Adapter to NAT and upgrading to ReactOS-0.3.11-CLT2010. Told me to reboot to finished installing a driver, and finally everything works. Wonder why it didn't come with a web browser pre-installed. Anyways installed Opera, worked fine for while, but it suddenly froze when I tried to type something on the address bar. Couldn't close the process. Next, I tried Firefox 2 (just wanted to revisit it). It works fine even on this site. Overall it's definitely not feature-complete and the software is somewhat lacking, but they've done a good job of it so far. Like the idea of an open-source Windows.

14. May 2010, 02:34 AM	#5 (permalink)
Doobie Senior Member Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 110	ReactOS will never be a suitable user OS. They're as far from a Windows replacement today as they were 10 years ago. Windows is a moving target and they're not catching up. Even if by some miracle they actually come out with a working Windows clone in a few years, the OS is becoming irrelevant. God bless them for trying, but it's an exercise in vanity.