ReactOS is a free, opensource reimplementation of windows
  • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
    91·
    10 hours ago

    I feel like the reactOS team are good people from the 90s who just never gave up, and good for them.

    The fact is, i’d probably sooner install templeOS, and that’s not happening. Actually, if old windows licenses weren’t ridiculously awash in graymarket swampishness it’d be a wonderful alternative someday, for those archival use cases.

  • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    14·
    13 hours ago

    Feel a bit dumb saying this since it’s apparently been around 30years but I’ve never heard of this.

    Any comments on the user experience? Before you tell me to just install Linux, I have on some of my systems but I have a lot of specialty peripherals and work software that I’ve never been able to get to run properly on Linux distros on my main desktop and the laptop experience still feels like a compromise to me.

    What are some downsides of using this over windows?

    • palordrolap@fedia.io
      20·
      12 hours ago

      As I understand it, it’s supposed to be a from-the-ground-up reimplementation of NT5 / Windows 2000 with maybe a handful of later tech squeezed in. Historically, it has borrowed heavily from the WINE project, though I’m not sure of the current state of play. It would certainly make sense to have continued to do so.

      It’s intended to be compatible with any and all Windows software, but the goalposts keep moving and the number of steps they are behind increases faster still. At this point it’s barely more than a passion project for the devs, though many of us really want them to succeed.

      (See also Haiku, which is a reimplementation and advancement of the contemporaneous BeOS.)

      I’ve occasionally tried to get ReactOS to run in a VM for the nostalgia and to see something like the screenshots, but it never seems to work for me, not that I’ve tried this new version yet.

    • Ricky Rigatoni@piefed.zipEnglish
      91·
      13 hours ago

      ReactOS is still in very early alpha and can not be comfortably run on bare metal systems except for some from the late 90’s or early 00’s.

      • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.spaceEnglish
        10·
        13 hours ago

        It’s not impossible that Microsoft put the Windows source on Github (as they have done with DOS) before this is ready for use.

  • mesa@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    11 hours ago

    Its been a minute since Ive heard of ReactOS! Its such an interesting project. From my understanding theres a lot of the same devs that helped out with early wine too. Might still im not sure.