ReactOS, a possible alternative to Linux?
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When the different operating systems are mentioned, it is usually named Windows, Linux, MacOS for PC.
But some time ago I was struck by an OS project where I do not know what to think of it, it's called ReactOS and it can be described as a Windows Open Source, that is, a system compatible with Microsoft programs and applications.
Perhaps one of the experts will be able to clarify if this will have a future to take into consideration, or that it is only a curiosity
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Your site doesn't load for me. Anyway, this looks like windows 95. Why would anyone want this?
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From what I understand it is similar in functionality to XP, this may be interesting for some with an old PC and programs of this OS, besides also supports soft more current than XP.
Fans will have among those who are accustomed to windows and see a certain irony in a Windows Open Source
Apart from this I do not think that it will have great diffusion, but who knows -
If it's a system compatible with MS programs and applications, and it's open-source, then why not put that code to better use and put it in Linux? It would be much better making Linux completely compatible with MS programs. How exactly does ReactOS make itself compatible with MS programs.
I saw the list of programs that it showed, and they're kind of old. Is it compatible with newer software like the latest version of Adobe Photoshop and MS Office?
I think the idea is really neat though, so thank you for sharing anyway.
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It would be interesting to find out if Vivaldi works in ReactOS XD
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@catweazle I would like to find that out. Are you thinking of trying a live USB to test that?
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@d0j0p said in ReactOS, a possible alternative to Linux?:
@catweazle I would like to find that out. Are you thinking of trying a live USB to test that?
I guess so, it's a pretty light OS
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I mean, this OS is alpha for 19 years now. By the point they'll finish their version of Windows XP/2003 it will be useful to no one. Especially, if we are talking about driver support and general software compatibility. How many devs still support NT ver 5.2 architecture? Not a whole lot at all.
It's nice idea, but it's also practically useless. Of course, they are free to burn through their own and their sponsors' money. WINE could benefit from some of their work, so that's nice and not a complete waste of resources.
This is a personal opinion, obviously. -
@d0j0p Compatibility with windows applications is being realized by the Wine project. There is shared effort between Wine and ReactOS, see https://www.reactos.org/wiki/WINE.
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@caine I see. So ReactOS is basically using Wine to run all those Windows applications. I thought maybe they had their own way, as I didn't see Wine on the website. That means any Linux distro can do this if the user installs Wine.
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From what I understood, ReactOS reuses more of the native windows dlls and drivers than Wine can do. That way it has an easier fallback in case some things are not ready yet. So Wine and ReactOS compatibility are not identical.
But I only tried ReactOS for a very brief time many years ago, so I am far from an expert on this and I am likely wrong.
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