has anyone played with reactOS?http://www.reactos.org/xhtml/en/index.html

it looks like the best windows clone to date!

http://svn.reactos.org/videos/ros_030_gui.html

it looks like it can run any windows program... im gonna check it out...

looks intresting i havent messed around with linux for a long time
this atleast beats Linspire
Yuck !

That does look like a pretty cool distro right there, it would be sweet if it really can handle any windows app.


**Moderate rant, but don't confuse this as a flame, just opinion here**
You know for all the ripping on Linspire that goes on I don't think they get enough recognition for what they do. Sure they aren't the greatest distro for anyone who has downloaded and burned their own distro. Sure it's no SuSe, and yes Ubuntu is painfully easy to learn with an awesome community. But your average wal-mart consumer (who they are marketing to) probably doesn't know how to find, burn, install, and use any other distro, let alone enter in all the tweaks needed to do everyday things.
Not only does Linspire allow grandma who doesn't know a sempron from an ipod to check her email, but linspire the company also contributes a huge chunk of money to open source development.

I'm not trying to be rude, just pointing out my opinion, hardcore distros have one market and place, linspire has it's own, and I think that most people haven't figured that out yet.

my two cents, take them or leave them.

im gonna install this tommrow and see how it goes...

i see that right now it lacks directx support... so this wont be a gamining os =)

I don't think it's a linux distro.

argh the comparison to linspire had me thinking this was linux. My bad. That sounds like some pretty tricky coding and what not, from what their faq says it sounds like they are reverse enginering an os to support windows drivers and apps. GREAT idea if it really works well, why bother trying to get developers and companies to make a driver for a free os when they can just use the pre-made, stable, and frequently updated ones. Great find man!

Quote: Originally Posted by thedemonxanth I don't think it's a linux distro.

From their website:

Quote: Originally Posted by ReactOS The ReactOS® project is dedicated to making Free Software available to everyone by providing a ground-up implementation of a Microsoft Windows® XP compatible operating system. ReactOS aims to achieve complete binary compatibility with both applications and device drivers meant for NT and XP operating systems, by using a similar architecture and providing a complete and equivalent public interface.

So it's a reverse-engineered version of Windows 2K/XP. If it's compatible with Windows, however, that includes spyware and viruses.... you may want to see which AV software suites will work with it. THen again, it's possible that all the stupid bugs in Windows weren't recreated here, but I know for a fact some of them had to for compatibility reasons.

Let us know how it works! Good find.

So that means it can write to NTFS?

Quote: Why ReactOS? Why clone Microsoft Windows? First of all, ReactOS is not a clone of Windows. ReactOS is an operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows applications and drivers. Some of the reasons are the same as the reasons for developing Linux (an open-source UNIX clone)? In short, Linux is a great operating system, but it is not the answer for everybody. There are a lot of people that like Microsoft Windows, but are very frustrated with Microsoft's policies on various issues. The 9x family of Microsoft Windows is based on DOS, and shares many of its weaknesses, which is the primary reason why Microsoft Windows has such a bad name. The Microsoft Windows NT family of Windows, however, has a solid design. Not everything is perfect, but without access to the source code, there is no way to fix it, so a compatible operating system must be built from the ground up.

Its also still an Alpha.

yeah... but if they get direct x support... for alot of people, this could be an alternative!!!

Think of it... Open Source Windows!

Brushes? Who needs brushes?


These guys are going to get in some hardcore trouble down the line

Quote: Originally Posted by _Sexy_Pants_ Brushes? Who needs brushes? These guys are going to get in some hardcore trouble down the line

Dont some companys Offer old versions for free on the net? Ha, I saw the same thing with wine. They had MS Office (or MSword) 97.

Quote: Originally Posted by _Sexy_Pants_ Brushes? Who needs brushes? These guys are going to get in some hardcore trouble down the line

It's just a screen shot showing that the program works, why would they get in trouble for that? It's not like they are implying it comes with the OS.

ReactOS is honestly the buggiest operating system I've ever tried besides of GNU/Hurd. Heck the thing has been in development for 10 years now. And they just got networking/internet working in it in the last 3 months or so. It's really just a slowly dying project that just won't go away. It's lacking a lot of developer support also.

Quote: Originally Posted by EvilClown ReactOS is honestly the buggiest operating system I've ever tried besides of GNU/Hurd. Heck the thing has been in development for 10 years now. And they just got networking/internet working in it in the last 3 months or so. It's really just a slowly dying project that just won't go away. It's lacking a lot of developer support also.

I too can vouch for that...I tried it out not that long ago. My personal opinion, stick with linux if you want a free OS. Wine is much better then that load of crap...and Wine is pretty buggy as well. (for what I use it for anyway) Also, the linux community is chock full of developers that are constantly working out the problems people encounter. Most problems I've encountered with different Linux distros have been resolved in a about a month...or a release...which ever comes first.

Quote: Originally Posted by 4x0n It's just a screen shot showing that the program works, why would they get in trouble for that? It's not like they are implying it comes with the OS.

My bad, I was unclear. The picture was just showing the missing tool icons - not a fantastic way to show off your software

What I meant was that Microsoft will be some pissed

why i noticed this... was due to the fact they jut released a new version!

Quote: Originally Posted by THRiLL KiLL why i noticed this... was due to the fact they jut released a new version!

Yup, and they finally got networking/internet to work in the newest version. Go ahead and give it a try but don't get your hopes up, the thing really IS buggy and doesn't do a whole lot.

I never really had any faith in it.

The way I see it, if you can do such magic with emulating windows, fold it into the WINE project. Then you can have the application support and the customizatility of Unix.