ReactOS Has Been Steadily Improving As An Open-Source Windows Implementation

[darkoverlordofdata]

Maybe they just like working on it without any deadline or pressure or needs to have this done...

ha ha - who doesn't. Even on the reactos forums, they warn against requesting speedier development, they say their community doesn't like that talk. If I could've delayed some of my projects until after I retired I could have spent much more time with my family!

[qarium]

ReactOS really saved our ass at work last year. We had a need to update the firmware on one of the sensors attached to our embedded Linux PC-based products, while the products were in the field, some of them in very remote/inaccessible locations. The firmware can only be flashed using a crappy old Windows application, which will not run properly under Wine. Thankfully I was able to configure a QEMU disk image with ReactOS, preloaded with the manufacturer flashing app, and do the firmware upgrade remotely. The whole thing was a lot smaller than had we done this with Windows disk image, weighing in at only 350 MB or so, which was a big plus since only very flaky 4G/3G connection was available at most sites. Big thanks to the ReactOS team. A lot of respect for re-implementing all those old APIs, warts and all.

not only the people of ReactOS are heroes no you are a Hero to. I am very proud of you.

people from microsoft reading your post here will then realize that their products are the worst shithole in this universe.

[kneekoo]

Strangely enough, neither the live nor the install CD will work with any type of video in QEMU. Both versions hang with an "Unable to initialize video" error.

It works for me.™

This is how I started it:

qemu-system-i386 -cdrom ReactOS-0.4.13-Live.iso -m 1G -enable-kvm -vga virtio

ReactOS 0.4.13 live in QEMU

[AJSB]

Going back to the subject of the Windows XP "Leak"...i believe it was intentional as in trying to fatally contaminate projects like WINE and ReactOS.

...but maybe i'm just being too much paranoic...

[Paradigm Shifter]

Going back to the subject of the Windows XP "Leak"...i believe it was intentional as in trying to fatally contaminate projects like WINE and ReactOS.

...but maybe i'm just being too much paranoic...

Given Microsoft's history, it's a valid theory. Unless someone inside Microsoft comes out and admits it, or documentation leaks detailing that as a strategy, it's not likely to be proven one way or the other, though.

I really like ReactOS. I don't use it (currently) but did briefly tinker around with it in the past. It... worked... for a given value of "worked". It booted on the old PC I slapped together from some ancient parts, but wasn't useful for much else at the time. To be honest, I probably get more excited than I should when I see news of an update.

But as others have said, who am I to criticise how others spend their time? Hobbies are hobbies, they don't necessarily need to make a whole lot of sense to everyone.

[danmcgrew]

ha ha - who doesn't. Even on the reactos forums, they warn against requesting speedier development, they say their community doesn't like that talk. If I could've delayed some of my projects until after I retired I could have spent much more time with my family!

"Damn those people who don't do what I want with their free time..."--numacross (#6)

"Maybe they are doing this in their spare time and have actual jobs and lives outside of it."--NateHubbard (#11)

"So a project to which you did not contribute anything does not meet your expectations?
1) Most of the progress so far has been done by people in their spare time.
2) Not every project has to be useful. If people like to spend their spare time on an interesting exercise that's their choice, not yours.
3) Just because it is not useful now, does not mean it never will. I remember the times when it was a miracle that wine could run WinZip on a Linux box ... ~15 years later and it powers AAA games....
...I'm impressed. Please tell us more about all of your contributions to open source projects ..."--wolfe (#17)

[jo-erlend]

I have never been able to boot it on any machine. Almost impressive in and of itself.

[saulius2]

I have never been able to boot it on any machine. Almost impressive in and of itself.

Namely what versions were you testing?