"Open-Source Windows" ReactOS To See Improved GUI Setup/Installation

[DMJC]

ReactOS is a valuable project. It's like FreeDOS for Windows. Just because you might not have a use case for it doesn't mean others don't. I could install MSDOS 6.22 from pirate websites, or I can download and use FreeDOS. Which I currently use to run Wing Commander 1/2/Privateer on a MiSTer FPGA console. I've been trialing ReactOS in a VM using BTRFS as the filesystem. It works well but is not yet ready for widespread use and that's ok. WINE will never run some Windows software, for example it doesn't load ThrustMaster joystick USB drivers so the ThrustMaster T.A.R.G.E.T software won't work in WINE. This is just one example, there are thousands more. ReactOS fixes this by allowing you to load Windows native drivers. It's also providing a non-tracked Windows NT environment which is becoming more critical every year. Windows is on a path to spying/control hell. Any tool that helps people get off of it is a good thing. In most open source projects 80% of the contributors are minor contributors and 20% of the contributors are doing most of the code merges. It wouldn't shock me if ReactOS only has 2-3 core programmers and the rest are small contributors that don't merge into upstream very often.

[mrg666]

Linux can run Windows applications. Linux can also do SMB, NTFS. Linux GUI can look like Windows too, Is ReactOS trying to achieve these?

[betam4x]

Great to see some ReactOS news, I would have contributed to the project my self if I had more time and programming expertise, and if I had the budget I'd donate even more or hire some others to do some good practical help. It's really a pity that there isn't more enthusiasm around such a project, probably because a lot of opensource developers are non-windows oriented and a lot of the time these also have wrong perceptions of Windows and the depths and capabilities of it because they were never serious users.

On Windows side, the users can be just as advanced and experienced and doesn't mean they only use Windows and that Windows pro-users were a lot of the time just as upset with Microsoft as everyone else, for literally doing nothing to improve windows for any kind of serious uses when it comes to file management, sys admin, developer and creator, os management and maintenance, most of the improvements are superficial for the masses and not really important to the most important users in the ecosystem. Took ages to get a GUI for environmental variables.

Windows is only as great because of the amazing work by some key third party applications and solutions, which are just miles ahead in every way of anything on linux in many fields, even the ones that are free. Sure there are some special programs which just happen to exist only on linux and they do the job fine for the main purpose they're built. Responsible 3rd-party application creators stick to a great standard on Windows of menus, locations, buttons, and it's all made for serious and workstation type users, without Microsoft having to mandate/check/approve/verify anything, it's just great, and when you get a program, you get a well done and fully fledged program that while mainly comes with a GUI per default, offers command line control or fine tuning of settings,

Microsoft was never interested in supporthing this great 3rd party ecosystem, they do pretty much the opposite, stifling and interrupting it, making Windows harder to adjust, tweak, configure, customize and work with, requiring more and more deeper and time consuming tweaking and modding to make things work the way workstation users want, to a point that ofcourse with Windows 11 many things aren't possible anymore.

I used to be a contributor in the early days, but ended up quitting due to lack of time and income. Sometimes I want to get back into it.

[Jabberwocky]

ReactOS is a valuable project. It's like FreeDOS for Windows. Just because you might not have a use case for it doesn't mean others don't. I could install MSDOS 6.22 from pirate websites, or I can download and use FreeDOS. Which I currently use to run Wing Commander 1/2/Privateer on a MiSTer FPGA console. I've been trialing ReactOS in a VM using BTRFS as the filesystem. It works well but is not yet ready for widespread use and that's ok. WINE will never run some Windows software, for example it doesn't load ThrustMaster joystick USB drivers so the ThrustMaster T.A.R.G.E.T software won't work in WINE. This is just one example, there are thousands more. ReactOS fixes this by allowing you to load Windows native drivers. It's also providing a non-tracked Windows NT environment which is becoming more critical every year. Windows is on a path to spying/control hell. Any tool that helps people get off of it is a good thing. In most open source projects 80% of the contributors are minor contributors and 20% of the contributors are doing most of the code merges. It wouldn't shock me if ReactOS only has 2-3 core programmers and the rest are small contributors that don't merge into upstream very often.

I found https://86box.net/ to be better in 99% of my retro workloads. I didn't test any joysticks though.

I still like the idea of ReactOS but at it's current pace it's going to take multiple decades to become useful to me. I am concerned about Windows tracking but I think it will be easier to reverse engineer windows prevent tracking than relying on ReactOS. There are people on public forums that have posted guides to remove tracking from Windows 10 and 11. It's very annoying but it can be done.

[Old Grouch]

Those companies are still using XP and ME because they simply do not want to bother pay anyone. They have no interest in either paying for migration or paying for development of reactOS.

I wish I had your insight into other people's motivations. It's hard enough understanding my own.

It is certainly valid to ask what the use-case for ReactOS might be, apart from being one, or several people's pet hobby.

Legitimate copies of older versions of Microsoft Windows, even if unsupported, are getting increasingly difficult to come by. One possible benefit of ReactOS is a path forward for running old Windows applications on a legal platform.

ReactOS is not ready to be used 'in anger', but it might get there and provide an option for people who, for one reason or another, would like to run something that is 'bug compatible' with older versions of Windows. Given ReactOS is still being developed, it might do <whatever> even better than the Windows it is replacing.

I can only guess. A lot of people are interested in ReactOS, for one reason or another, and that in itself is a good enough reason for it to exist. Its existence might even be beneficial.

If you don't like it, you can ignore it, and go and scratch your own itches.