ReactOS "Open-Source Windows" Making Progress On x86_64, Multi-Monitor

[Ladis]

For example you cannot run various security providers which rely on hardware keys with wine.

Hardware keys are being replaced with online licenses. Costs many times less, problems with customers solved faster and gives "free" telemetry.

[Ladis]

You’ve spelled rootkit wrong.

Yes, rootkits are forbidden in recent versions of Windows. The software makers had to create patches to support new Windows.

[commodore256]

So you can have a useless OS and run nothing on it? Ya, that makes a lot of sense.

"Useless"? People still run DOS today on embedded industrial applications. NT 5.2 is a Workstation grade OS and I'd be happy with an FLOSS Windows ME, an underrated version of windows, the last hurrah for DOS based Windows, the last time you could activate windows Off-Grid and was designed to be useful without internet. Windows XP was mostly like that, but you needed online/phone activation, but everything changed between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Everything, even software you bought on disc started to assume an internet connection to a server that wouldn't be running forever. Windows XP could also allow the user to install kernel level rootkits if they so wanted, now I don't like the driver level anti-cheat rootkit. But, if you could control the rootkit you could have a really good software level firewall. It opens security holes, but it opens potential for the user to have more control.


If there's ever a ReactOS 1.0 that's fully NT 5.x compatible, I think new software will be compiled targeting it and some people might switch even in 15 years. Even now, I recently performed a thought experiment of extending pre-Win95 DOS hardware with application specific accelerator cards. Like using a PCI add-in that decodes h265 video and uses the computer as like a jukebox controller and have the NIC have support cryptography. You could still do modern things on a Pentium pre-MMX. If you can do that to DOS, imagine what you can do to XP.

[cb88]

"Useless"? People still run DOS today on embedded industrial applications. NT 5.2 is a Workstation grade OS and I'd be happy with an FLOSS Windows ME, an underrated version of windows, the last hurrah for DOS based Windows, the last time you could activate windows Off-Grid and was designed to be useful without internet. Windows XP was mostly like that, but you needed online/phone activation, but everything changed between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Everything, even software you bought on disc started to assume an internet connection to a server that wouldn't be running forever. Windows XP could also allow the user to install kernel level rootkits if they so wanted, now I don't like the driver level anti-cheat rootkit. But, if you could control the rootkit you could have a really good software level firewall. It opens security holes, but it opens potential for the user to have more control.


If there's ever a ReactOS 1.0 that's fully NT 5.x compatible, I think new software will be compiled targeting it and some people might switch even in 15 years. Even now, I recently performed a thought experiment of extending pre-Win95 DOS hardware with application specific accelerator cards. Like using a PCI add-in that decodes h265 video and uses the computer as like a jukebox controller and have the NIC have support cryptography. You could still do modern things on a Pentium pre-MMX. If you can do that to DOS, imagine what you can do to XP.

No they don't. Sure there are 30 year old machines out there running DOS... but you'd have to a bricks for brains to run DOS of all things on a new installation. Most new stuff is running some form of embedded Linux. Or something Like VxWorks, or a proprietary kernel. Or in the case of some industrial hardware no OS at all... just an infinite event loop.

[tildearrow]

Hardware keys are being replaced with online licenses. Costs many times less, problems with customers solved faster and gives "free" telemetry.

Also makes it impossible to run the software if the developer decides to shut the license servers down.

[dylanmtaylor]

I took a look at the Hurd's site to see how it's going and man, it looks dead AF
So sad. It was an interesting project, after all!

The last release is from almost 5 years ago. I'd hardly call that actively developed.

[blacknova]

Hardware keys are being replaced with online licenses. Costs many times less, problems with customers solved faster and gives "free" telemetry.

In OLD software? yeah, right. Does not address custom CSPs with identity stored on USB token though.

[dragon321]

So you can have a useless OS and run nothing on it? Ya, that makes a lot of sense.

There are still DOS machines running some old software and/or old hardware. XP probably won't disappear in near future as well. Beside of that ReactOS is not locked to XP. Compatibility with Vista and newer is also part of the project. Some basic stuff is already available in ReactOS.

[Ladis]

In OLD software? yeah, right. Does not address custom CSPs with identity stored on USB token though.

USB works fine in VM (virtual machine). Also you are free to install a crack for old software. It's important you to have a legal license to use it, but not important how you install it (here on a Linux related forum people should know, e.g. many software doesn't have a native build for Linux and software protection doesn't work in WINE 🍷).

[blacknova]

USB works fine in VM (virtual machine). Also you are free to install a crack for old software. It's important you to have a legal license to use it, but not important how you install it (here on a Linux related forum people should know, e.g. many software doesn't have a native build for Linux and software protection doesn't work in WINE 🍷).

You still need an OS to run in VM. And you're not free to install it, unless it is free OS.