ReactOS as the long-in-development “open-source Windows” project has been on quite a roll recently. Beyond a big Windows NT 6 compatibility improvement and fixing a very annoying usability issue, for this third week of the year there is another big change landing: a significant improvement in networking performance on ReactOS.
ReactOS finally supports asynchronous TCP connections with the latest-merged code.
I still think these guys are lunatics, who loves windows coding so much as to do this? Hahaha very impressive
I remember hearing about this project years ago. Isn’t the point to provide a more secure OS for ancient software that can’t run on anything else?
Windows often have a better API than Linux, but not always.
The bug was reported 10 years ago 😬
Sure.
But “missing significant foundational and complex functionality is not really a bug”, it is a feature. I mean, I guess I could file a bug that says “won’t run ALL Windows software” and talk about how long it stays open.
As each of these dominos falls, it gets easier to add more functionality on top. I feel like they have made more progress in the past two years than they have in the 10 before that.
Faster turn around than most DE teams in my company.
Are you new to open-source and the concept of triage? Bugzilla bug #6 for me was opened 24 years ago. I may get it done this year.
I think Loss32 is the better idea for making an open source Windows
(Also why is this post in a Linux community?)
I’m not sure what advantage loss32 has over any normal distro+wine? A familiar user interface?
ReactOS’ claim to fame, IIRC, is that it also has driver level compatibility, and that’s something a Linux kernel couldn’t ever realistically do.
Back on the old days, we used windows wifi drivers on Linux via ndiswrappers.
I haven’t thought about that in aaaages…
I’m not sure what advantage loss32 has over any normal distro+wine? A familiar user interface?
The advantage of Loss32 is that your shell would be inside the WINE layer, so you don’t have to run things with WINE because you boot straight into WINE. It’s easier for the user.
ReactOS’ claim to fame, IIRC, is that it also has driver level compatibility, and that’s something a Linux kernel couldn’t ever realistically do.
There’s a lot of driver support already in Linux. And aside from incredibly niche devices, more drivers could be made if needed. Especially if Linux becomes more popular and OEMs start shipping prebuilts with it, they will ensure driver support.
Is driver support stable in ReactOS? Can it handle hardware video encoding? Modern games with ray tracing and DLSS? FSR4 and frame generation? Does it crash less than Linux? If it still requires dev work for them to get new drivers working in ReactOS then is that actually better than just using Linux?
Getting more people on Linux will increase driver support, but ReactOS will always be smaller than Linux.
ReactOS is not Linux. It is a ground-up “We have Windows at home” OS.
Yeah that’s why I was wondering why this was posted in this community. But Loss32 is a (theoretical) Linux distro
You can configure pretty much any DE to launch exes as if they were native binaries. It used to be the default (and may still be).
I’d rather there be a FOSS option for people stuck with super rare hardware that’ll never get enough attention for a Linux driver.
Is driver support stable in ReactOS?
It exposes the Windows driver APIs, so it’s “getting there”, slowly. They got the (Win 7 era) Nvidia driver running recently.
That looks amazing
Maybe one day it’ll actually work, ah hell who am I kidding it never will :3
Given how slowly they move, the obvious choice is to bet against them.
That said…
It already works for some stuff. There are already people that have been able to use ReactOS to run legacy but vital applications. I cannot remember any details but I have heard of a few instances where businesses saved rather substantial amounts of money with ReactOS.
Similarly, there are certainly people that find it runs the particular applications they want and runs on the hardware they have. Some legacy gamers use it. But perhaps you have hardware that is only supported under Windows XP.
And, if people keep using Windows, it will eventually become usable enough to be a viable alternative. If it had Windows 7 level features today and ran modern apps, a lot of people would find it good enough to switch. It does not have to be better than Windows or support every Windows feature.
As slow as they are, they have gotten further than most people would have expected.
Quite frankly right now they just need to focus on becoming stable and reaching software parity with Windows XP, the reason it can even do that is because of a leak but if they pushed it and reverse engineered windows 7 Microsoft would shut it down.
I invented a fake bubonic plague that produces most of the pain and suffering but doesn’t actually kill anyone and is completely voluntary.
Where’s my parade?!
