ReactOS 0.4.14 "Open-Source Windows" OS Brings Many Improvements

[DMJC]

Because it's not the key component of ReactOS at all. Every Library in ReactOS has been engineered to talk directly to the ReactOS kernel. Unlike WINE where everything wraps onto the Linux Kernel/Libraries. They were only importing a single component from that WINE version. ReactOS syncs over WINE code where it's useful, but increasingly ReactOS relies on its own code. It's definitely becoming more functional/useful. 0.4.15 has some really huge improvements coming. E.g ReactOS 64-bit/SMP support including support for AMD Threadripper!

[Black_Fox]

But seriously, with its current state and pace of development, I fail to understand who is ReactOS for. It looks like nothing but a hobby project by the developers for themselves. And it's not that I dislike small hobby operating systems or something. I think os like Haiku or others are pretty cool. But this? I just don't get the point of replicating an old version of Windows that barely can even run on bare metal of old hardware.

I don't get the point of reimplementing any abandoned OS that no sane person would use today anyway, whether that's Haiku, ReactOS or anything else really. However, I'm aware and I fully accept there are many people who have a different opinion on this than I do, they're not wrong either. ReactOS devs reuse as much WINE as possible and also other available open source libraries; they're (not) reinventing the wheel of Windows in a similar way Linux was (not) reinventing MINIX. There's zero open source NT-family kernels today without ReactOS.

[elvis]

But seriously, with its current state and pace of development, I fail to understand who is ReactOS for. It looks like nothing but a hobby project by the developers for themselves. And it's not that I dislike small hobby operating systems or something. I think os like Haiku or others are pretty cool. But this? I just don't get the point of replicating an old version of Windows that barely can even run on bare metal of old hardware.

I do a fair bit of software preservation work, and where I see ReactOS's potential is similar to what FreeDOS and DOSBox did for DOS software perseveration.

Bundling real genuine older Windows with software is a legal minefield for companies, and making old software work easily in new Windows is tricky. Companies like GOG are already being forced to patch old titles do that they're no longer compatible with era-matching operating systems in order to work with current desktop software.

ReactOS has a long road ahead of it, but I'm really hoping it can help. Although I think even then, user space libraries (WINE on Windows for example) might end up being an easier option for that use case.

[Old Nobody]

32MB i486 w/ https://t2sde.org Linux: no problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAYgCE0wFE4

That machine is too slow for its specs. Have you checked if the "turbo" switch/jumper was enabled? Disabling it usually disables L1 cache, which brings everything to a crawl

[cb88]

That machine is too slow for its specs. Have you checked if the "turbo" switch/jumper was enabled? Disabling it usually disables L1 cache, which brings everything to a crawl

Yeah there were some issues... also note that he is using PIO for the disk IIRC which kills performance. Also modern Linux probably doesn't fit well within the cache... if you are remembering how fast linux 2.x was on a 486 or similar... current linux probably is considerably slower.

[darkoverlordofdata]

But seriously, with its current state and pace of development, I fail to understand who is ReactOS for. It looks like nothing but a hobby project by the developers for themselves. And it's not that I dislike small hobby operating systems or something. I think os like Haiku or others are pretty cool. But this? I just don't get the point of replicating an old version of Windows that barely can even run on bare metal of old hardware.

I've said before, I doubt they will hit 1.0.0 in my lifetime. I was very excited about it 20+ years ago. Since then, they have had their share of problems - copyright disputes, questionable funding, rewrites… I retired 3 years ago and gave up on them. I wish them luck, but I'm not holding my breath.

I do a fair bit of software preservation work, and where I see ReactOS's potential is similar to what FreeDOS and DOSBox did for DOS software perseveration.

Don't we already have than with WINE? That's what IBM told us to use years ago, when we needed to run legacy apps. That's what originally got me started with Linux.

[rene]

That machine is too slow for its specs. Have you checked if the "turbo" switch/jumper was enabled? Disabling it usually disables L1 cache, which brings everything to a crawl

It was only swapping to death, I had no more matching vintage RAM modules, but later ordered some more and it runs way better. Also the turbo switch / jumper usually did not disable the cache, but simply changed the cpu clock oscillator.

[rene]

Yeah there were some issues... also note that he is using PIO for the disk IIRC which kills performance. Also modern Linux probably doesn't fit well within the cache... if you are remembering how fast linux 2.x was on a 486 or similar... current linux probably is considerably slower.

Yes, this was intended as legacy libata test for our linux distribution https://t2sde.org. Also bus mastering IDE was introduced with some Intel Pentium chipset ;-)

[doragasu]

You can run systemd on low memory systems as well: https://elinux.org/images/6/69/Demystifying_Systemd.pdf

https://github.com/solettaproject/soletta

I have browsed that PDF and it's interesting, but the systemd part talks only about filesystem usage, not about RAM (that is what I was talking about). It would be interesting to see how much RAM a trimmed down systemd uses.

[kneekoo]

...real! This story of the ram used by the system makes sense only for some particular purposes of the OS or on a PC whose place would be an ecological landfill. Nobody or hardly cares ... most people care about having everything they need, ready to use. Today a pc should have at least 4Gb of ram, so the use of ram at startup has become obsolete.

"Everything they need" includes "need", which differs vastly from one person to another. I agree that most people need a browser, but anything more than that is just a guess. RAM taken by the OS matters a lot for people using hardware limited from the factory by the manufacturer. As lame as it is, we still have new hardware with 4GB RAM or less, without an upgrade option. These are the ones users install operating systems upon, that don't gobble up a lot of RAM just to show a GUI.

Leaving RAM available for anything else is a good idea no matter the times we live in. lVddvHo.jpg