Open-Source Windows: ReactOS 0.4.5 Now Available

[Jabberwocky]

As Windows gets stupider, slower, invasive, less confgurable ReactOS is needed more than ever. Not just for people like me who like to pop it in a VM and do certain tasks, but eventually also as a decent replacement for Windows itself. In my oppinion the last good move Microsoft did was Windows XP (excluding that stupid theme crap) and it has gone downhill ever since (especially regarding performance). There is a ton of software for Windows and a free replacement for WinXP and/or Win7 is very welcome. ReactOS needs to be a bit more reliable for bad shutdowns etc, but except from that it is a good start. Let's just hope it will catch up a bit.

I find Win7 and Win10 fast and stable for 3D applications, professional audio recording and running virtual machines (&containers on Win10). I do agree about Windows becoming more stupid in terms of UX/features and more invasive in terms of UX/privacy issues. I do see the need for something like ReactOS to support and provide secure runtime for legacy applications. I'm usually very optimistic and full of hope for reverse engineering projects like this one, but given the development pace and bad design of Win... I don't think there is much hope for ReactOS in the long run.

I'm wondering if it is easier (if you disregard legal issues and the time it takes) to rewrite all the software that people are currently using and only works on unsupported versions of Windows compared to writing a stable secure OS that supports these types of old software. It would be sad if people are still writing/buying software that targets single platform 15 years from now (WinXP was released ~15 years ago).

[tuuker]

ReactOS really needs a massive promotion to get more C and C++ developers so finally very fast and lightweight Windows alternative could arrive. Today most full featured GUI Linux and new Windows version become so much bloated that it is really a mess.

[DMJC]

ReactOS Runs Caligari Truespace, and 3D Studio Max, in a VM. Which means I don't have to pay for windows anymore to use legacy software which Linux will probably never get ported. Workflow matters to a lot of people and Blender is not a valid solution for many artists. The fact that ReactOS haven't Fisher Priced the entire UI is a big bonus too.

[starshipeleven]

So, let's say that in 1996 a company made a piece of software that targets a specific niche industry. They made it using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FoxPro or something similar. They went out of business, let's say 3 years after that, but the entire industry revolves around this software still.

They need to run Windows, and they need it to be stable, and they need it to support some ancient stuff, but they've upgraded their computers several times due to failing miserable old hardware (e-Machines or somesuch).

They need to force this old stuff to play nice with Windows 10. They can't retrain their employees to use non-Windows, so attempting to do Linux/BSD + WINE is a no-go. This would let them use the software without licensing to MS and without trying to use XP/2000 with no security patches.

Niche case. Alternatively you could spin up lots of VMs with no MS licenses, or you could play games/programs that no longer work well with modern Windows.

I might sound harsh, but if you (as a company) can't pull your ass out of that sandpit in a decade you deserve to crash and burn. There are companies specialized in such migrations too (ancient abandoned crap --> C# or java applications).

Also even if they decide to go full retard there are far far far better options with off-the-shelf software like running the application they need in a VM with Seamless Mode (virtualbox) or whatever is called in VMWare that shows the application in the desktop as if it was native of the host OS (and it can be configured to have access to user home folder pretty easily), so they can use modern hardware/Windows and keep the old crap sandboxed and isolated from teh internetz.

Also, FYI, Windows VM/thinclients still need a license, it's usually dealt with Volume Licensing because that's what companies usually buy anyway, but teh licenz muz' be pyd.

[nomadewolf]

I find Win7 and Win10 fast and stable for 3D applications, professional audio recording and running virtual machines (&containers on Win10). I do agree about Windows becoming more stupid in terms of UX/features and more invasive in terms of UX/privacy issues. I do see the need for something like ReactOS to support and provide secure runtime for legacy applications. I'm usually very optimistic and full of hope for reverse engineering projects like this one, but given the development pace and bad design of Win... I don't think there is much hope for ReactOS in the long run.

I'm wondering if it is easier (if you disregard legal issues and the time it takes) to rewrite all the software that people are currently using and only works on unsupported versions of Windows compared to writing a stable secure OS that supports these types of old software. It would be sad if people are still writing/buying software that targets single platform 15 years from now (WinXP was released ~15 years ago).

I don't know where people got this idea that ReactOS is/will only be good to run old apps...
Don't forget that it should be way easier to allow for .NET 4 and newer which is what newer apps relly on.
Also, after getting a working kernel, adpating it for compatibility with newer versions should also be much easier.
ReactOS took so long to get to where it is today because not everyone knows how to program a kernel. Reverse engineering a kernel is even harder. But today there is a 'working' kernel and we're at that stage where much more people can contribute code into the project, so from now on it should only speed up it's development. It will also depend alot on how much attention the project will manage to attract. But the potential is definitely there...

[Guest]

Ok, so I would kind of understand something like this 20 years ago, but for TODAY...... WHY?

1) likely for fun.
2) It's something developers can put on their portfolio. Imagine how "contributed to an open source clone of Microsoft windows" looks on your resume in front of a possible employer.

[unixfan2001]

Since it's "just" a re-implementation of the NT Kernel, it very likely contains the same unsolvable atom table vulnerability.
Windows is a ticking time bomb.

[starshipeleven]

Since it's "just" a re-implementation of the NT Kernel, it very likely contains the same unsolvable atom table vulnerability.
Windows is a ticking time bomb.

Sounds like tons of fun https://threatpost.com/windows-atom-...ttacks/121589/
and it is already in "production" https://threatpost.com/dridex-trojan...update/123972/

I don't get why it should be "not solvable" though. Sure it might break retro-compatibility hard, and that is probably a good enough reason to not do it in Windows land that lives off retro-compatibility (or the promise of it, anyway), but it's not "unsolvable".

[unixfan2001]

Sounds like tons of fun https://threatpost.com/windows-atom-...ttacks/121589/
and it is already in "production" https://threatpost.com/dridex-trojan...update/123972/

I don't get why it should be "not solvable" though. Sure it might break retro-compatibility hard, and that is probably a good enough reason to not do it in Windows land that lives off retro-compatibility (or the promise of it, anyway), but it's not "unsolvable".

It's unsolvable in so far that widely used software may still use it.
I haven't monitored the atom table usage on my office computer in a long while but I do know that Firefox used to use the global atom table a while back.

EDIT: Oh yea. I almost forgot. RegisterWindowMessage() is using pretty much the same mechanism, as well. At that point you might as well rewrite the whole OS...

EDIT2: Just monitored the situation on my office system. Visual Studio registers a global atom, as does Google Chrome. The latter didn't even provide CFG until October 2016, as part of Canary 56.0.2891.0.