ReactOS 0.4.7 Released As The Latest For "Open-Source Windows"

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ReactOS 0.4.7 Released As The Latest For "Open-Source Windows"

At the end of October ReactOS 0.4.7-RC1 was released as the newest test release for this open-source operating system project continuing to work on re-implementing the Windows APIs. That official v0.4.7 release is now available...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ReactOS-0.4.7-Released

[tildearrow]

Typo:

quicj launch support

[Guest]

Nice work. But, seriously. I'm most interested in operating system, which would protect user's data from malware, ransomware, spyware...

Such OS would run third-party applications in perfectly sandboxed mode. And, any access to system's, or user's, resources or data, would need prior approval from the user.

And, I really don't want resource hungry overkill, which also requires to manage multiple virtual machines, and doesn't support gpu acceleration. Like, Qubes OS, which is greatly focused on security, but at expense of user's comfort...

[r_a_trip]

Nice work. But, seriously. I'm most interested in operating system, which would protect user's data from malware, ransomware, spyware...

Such OS would run third-party applications in perfectly sandboxed mode. And, any access to system's, or user's, resources or data, would need prior approval from the user.

And, I really don't want resource hungry overkill, which also requires to manage multiple virtual machines, and doesn't support gpu acceleration. Like, Qubes OS, which is greatly focused on security, but at expense of user's comfort...

Your objectives for an OS are diametrically opposed. If you want security for your own files, it could be easily done by requiring your permission for any on-disk modification of files. But you mention user comfort. I doubt you'd like an OS which asked you for credentials for every change that needs to be made on-disk.

Safety for user files is done by redundancy. Keep your back-ups in order and you'll be fine.

[ssokolow]

Your objectives for an OS are diametrically opposed. If you want security for your own files, it could be easily done by requiring your permission for any on-disk modification of files. But you mention user comfort. I doubt you'd like an OS which asked you for credentials for every change that needs to be made on-disk.

Safety for user files is done by redundancy. Keep your back-ups in order and you'll be fine.

Well, that and building a defense-in-depth stack of various incremental steps like Flatpak, which makes it easy to retrofit desktop applications with Android-like sandboxing since you can use it to launch any application in a defined-on-the-spot sandbox without having to repackage things.

(Once I upgrade off Kubuntu 14.04 LTS, I intend to use it to block Unity analytics pings from single-player games and have the last laugh against games like The Escapists which want to put their clutter as non-hidden files directly in $HOME and ignore attempts like export HOME=$HOME/.local/share/TheEscapists by using libc functions to query user account data directly from /etc/passwd. )

Admittedly, you do need Wayland or an application can use the X server APIs to escape any sandbox, but it's a start.

[azdaha]

The pace of ReactOS development is Zzzzzzzzz..... sorry I fell asleep. How long have they been working on this thing?

Too slow to React? Should've called it RejectOS, if the intention was to avoid proprietary lock-in/use.

I haven't heard of ReactOS, but it sounds like an interesting, maybe even valiant, effort. Although, resources might be better used toward working on existing projects to facilitate using, implementing, or supporting Windows (or porting Windows-only)applications within Linux, IMHO.

[ruthan]

Is there something like compatibility list like have emulators, to see percentage of SW or games, which are actually working?
Im afraid that they dont have something like that, because they are afraid to show real state of this OS..

[Palu Macil]

I don't think their point is to make an operating system that's useful or helpful. If that was their intent then they would allow things like dotnet to be shipped with the operating system. However, they're very intent on sticking to only C.

[bridgman]

The pace of ReactOS development is Zzzzzzzzz..... sorry I fell asleep. How long have they been working on this thing?

How long has Microsoft been working on Windows ?

I remember going out to Redmond to talk about Windows 3 (I was running a business designing & building Macintosh graphics cards & accelerators for other companies at the time and Windows was starting to look interesting)... must have been almost 30 years ago.

[Kendji]

Really impressive, though they need more devs. You could in theory run all except games on this system.