ReactOS "Open-Source Windows" Making Good Strides On SMP CPU Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ReactOS "Open-Source Windows" Making Good Strides On SMP CPU Support

The ReactOS project has posted their latest newsletter that outlines progress made during the past two months. ReactOS continues working to be an open-source operating system that offers application and driver binary compatibility with Microsoft Windows to in effect serve as a "open-source Windows" albeit the hardware support and application support are still an ongoing affair...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/ReactOS-May-2024-Update

[Daktyl198]

I love seeing ReactOS make progress. I wish them nothing but luck, as it would be extremely beneficial to have an open source Windows compatible OS. That being said, even with the progress they've made, they're still only really targeting Windows 95/2000 compatibility which is just kinda useless.

I wonder if somebody will start a new project targeting Windows 10 compatibility. It might pop off, with it's upcoming demise and all that. I wonder how hard it would be to use the Linux kernel, but write an ecosystem on top of it that provides Windows compatibility?

[Snaipersky]

I love seeing ReactOS make progress. I wish them nothing but luck, as it would be extremely beneficial to have an open source Windows compatible OS. That being said, even with the progress they've made, they're still only really targeting Windows 95/2000 compatibility which is just kinda useless.

I wonder if somebody will start a new project targeting Windows 10 compatibility. It might pop off, with it's upcoming demise and all that. I wonder how hard it would be to use the Linux kernel, but write an ecosystem on top of it that provides Windows compatibility?

Like WINE? And they target xp/2003 at a kernel level, but since they rely on WINE for a big part of their userland, they have support for some things beyond that.

[Ironmask]

It is worth noting that [feature] is still heavily under development and there is no exact estimate of when [feature] will finally be ready, so stay tuned for more updates!

Yeah we know.

I love seeing ReactOS make progress. I wish them nothing but luck, as it would be extremely beneficial to have an open source Windows compatible OS. That being said, even with the progress they've made, they're still only really targeting Windows 95/2000 compatibility which is just kinda useless.

I wonder if somebody will start a new project targeting Windows 10 compatibility. It might pop off, with it's upcoming demise and all that. I wonder how hard it would be to use the Linux kernel, but write an ecosystem on top of it that provides Windows compatibility?

ReactOS specifically targets Server 2003 SP2, but what it supports varies widely depending on what you're looking at: It uses WINE, which supports a wide variety of Windows API versions. It's own APIs and driver framework have bits and pieces that support later versions of Windows, but nothing specific. Basically they have support for future versions half-ready for when they finally move their target version, but right now they don't even have 1:1 Server 2003 support. Moving targets before you're even finished with your first one is usually a recipe for disaster.

I do agree though that the version of Windows they target is becoming so irrelevant that it's almost feeling as pointless as HURD. Not just because software that ran on XP is becoming outdated in itself, but because our technology is advancing at such a rate that the idea of replicating an entire OS for compatibility sake is becoming redundant. Now we're running old Windows applications in web browsers themselves, it's becoming cheaper to simply buy entirely new machinery/infrastructure to replace old infrastructure that depended on old software/drivers than it is to attempt to upgrade said software with drop-in replacements (not to mention old infrastructure is becoming concerningly more exploitable). Microsoft themselves is very slowly trickling out the source code of ancient versions of their products, so maybe even in a decade or so they'll just drop some old Windows code eventually anyway (or even make modern Windows open source, it is probably becoming less profitable by the day anyway, OSes aren't even their primary market anymore). Society itself feels like it just fell out from beneath ReactOS. I still like the project and I'm not saying it should stop, but, I kind of lost passion for it.

[ezst036]

There is a part of me that finds it somewhat comical, also a little sad, that ReactOS makes progress faster than HURD.

[ezst036]

I love seeing ReactOS make progress. I wish them nothing but luck, as it would be extremely beneficial to have an open source Windows compatible OS. That being said, even with the progress they've made, they're still only really targeting Windows 95/2000 compatibility which is just kinda useless.

I wonder if somebody will start a new project targeting Windows 10 compatibility. It might pop off, with it's upcoming demise and all that. I wonder how hard it would be to use the Linux kernel, but write an ecosystem on top of it that provides Windows compatibility?

TBH if React said "we are targeting WindowsXP and we will end at XP" they actually would have something a little devastating on their hands.

XP was only Microsoft's most successful and adored version of Windows.

Make React look like XP. Make it binary compatible to XP. Maybe even call it ReactXP. This would cause chaos because people would move to it.

[Ironmask]

There is a part of me that finds it somewhat comical, also a little sad, that ReactOS makes progress faster than HURD.

It is funny but also makes sense.
ReactOS is not pointless, there is no open-source NT-compatible OS down to the driver level. WINE is fine and dandy, but if your application requires a driver (like for anti-cheat) then it won't work on any other OS. Making a Linux distro that fronts WINE is not a true Windows-compatible OS and does not replace Windows/ReactOS.
HURD is well and truly pointless. It's nothing but masturbatory material for it's few contributors who can't rip themselves away from the project. HURD and Linux were doing the same thing, replace the proprietary Unix. Linux did it, HURD did not. It doesn't even have the support of Stallman, since what he cared about more was getting anything to replace Unix's kernel. It is very much a ghost ship and it's largest claim to relevancy is entirely historical; what could have been.

[Eirikr1848]

Now I’m curious to know how they handle graphics drivers. Only some cards before a certain gen?

Mesa already has windows as a build target… curious to know if mesa is capable of providing 3D acceleration in ReactOS for OpenGL, DX9 and DX10. 🤔

[Ironmask]

Now I’m curious to know how they handle graphics drivers.

They don't.

ReactOS is in great shape and is leagues more usable than it was a decade ago, but, most drivers don't work yet. Only a very select few do, not even talking about an entire generation here. If you're curious, here's a video of a relatively notable YouTuber by the name of MichaelMJD who dabbles in various OS-related shenanigans installing ReactOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY-oYfHeE64
But to make a long story short, he barely manages to get it to output video on real hardware, only after finding a very specific GPU in his vintage collection.

[Quackdoc]

They don't.

ReactOS is in great shape and is leagues more usable than it was a decade ago, but, most drivers don't work yet. Only a very select few do, not even talking about an entire generation here. If you're curious, here's a video of a relatively notable YouTuber by the name of MichaelMJD who dabbles in various OS-related shenanigans installing ReactOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY-oYfHeE64
But to make a long story short, he barely manages to get it to output video on real hardware, only after finding a very specific GPU in his vintage collection.

Looks like he used stable which hasnt been updated in years, very much not indicative of reactOS' current development state.