This project really should have been the focus of the Russian computing community. I remember reading about it 15 years ago when I was in college, thinking "Wow, free Windows, that sounds useful".
Still not as usable as it needs to be and now the main use case for a lot of Windows machines, gaming, is being taken care of in GNU/Linux.
ReactOS has been very slow to develop, and probably missed the point where it could make an impact. It's still mostly impossible to run on real hardware, and their beta goal (version 0.5 which supports USB, wifi and is at least minimally useful on supported hardware) is still years away. But I never had the impression that gaming was a particularly important focus of the project.
ReactOS is mostly about the reimplementation of an older NT kernel, with a focus on driver compatibility. Their ultimate goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP such that any driver written for XP would work. That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
> That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
In most of those applications, you just leave the computer be and don't touch it. In some cases (especially medical devices) you may not even be allowed to touch it for legal/compliance reasons. If the hardware dies, you most likely find the exact same machine (or something equivalent) and run the same OS - there are many scenarios where replacing the computer with something modern is not viable (lack of the correct I/O interfaces, computer is too fast, etc.)
If there were software bugs which could impact operations, they probably would have arisen during the first few years when there was a support contract. As for security issues - you lock down access and disconnect from any network with public internet access.
All that assumes that ReactOS is a perfect drop-in replacement for whatever version of Windows you are replacing, and that is probably not a good assumption.
In my experience, things like ReactOS would have been more useful in parts of the world with let's say a less thorough approach to things like compliance.
A factory has a CNC machine delivered fifteen years ago that's been run by the same computer all along. The computer eventually gives up the ghost, the original IT guy who got the vendor's drivers and installed them on that computer with an FCKGW copy of WinXP is long gone. Asking the current IT guy, the easiest solution (in a hypothetical timeline where a usable ReactOS exists) is to take the cheapest computer available, install ReactOS, throw in drivers from the original vendor CD at the bottom of some shelf and call it a day.
We might have to agree to disagree here, but I think the scenario where the IT guy uses XP and "finds" a license for it is the approach I would take if I was put in this situation. If the vendor for the CNC machine certified/tested their machine against Windows XP, and does not offer any support for new operating systems, I would be very reluctant to use anything else - whether it is another version of Windows which could accept the same drivers, or an open source clone. Again, I'm assuming that ReactOS manages to be a perfect clone, which is may or may not be in practice.
> But I never had the impression that gaming was a particularly important focus of the project.
> ReactOS is mostly about the reimplementation of an older NT kernel, with a focus on driver compatibility. Their ultimate goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP such that any driver written for XP would work. That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
Fifteen years ago, they could have focused on both the industrial and consumer use cases. There were a lot of people who really didn't want to leave Windows XP in 2010-11, even just for their personal use.
Admittedly, FLOSS wasn't nearly as big of a thing back then like it is now. A larger share of GNU/Linux and BSD installs were on servers at the time, so it was a community mainly focused on commercial and industrial applications. Maybe that's what drove their focus.
It functionally is a project from fifteen-twenty years ago. Development activity was somewhat slow but steady but it largely fizzled out around I think 2018? The project tried to get political and financial support of the Russian government but failed to secure it, Aleksey Bragin transitioned to working in the crypto space, and of course with every year the number of potential users dependent on Windows 2000/XP is decreasing.
I think by now ReactOS is best viewed as an enthusiast research / challenge project with no practical use, like GNU Hurd. Just as Hurd is interesting in terms of how kernels can be done, but isn't a viable candidate for practical use, ReactOS is now in the same category. Very interesting as an exercise in reimplementing NT from scratch using clean room techniques but no longer a system that has a shot at gaining any adoption.
Discussion (74 points, 26 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46716469
This project really should have been the focus of the Russian computing community. I remember reading about it 15 years ago when I was in college, thinking "Wow, free Windows, that sounds useful".
Still not as usable as it needs to be and now the main use case for a lot of Windows machines, gaming, is being taken care of in GNU/Linux.
Gotta strike while the iron is hot.
ReactOS has been very slow to develop, and probably missed the point where it could make an impact. It's still mostly impossible to run on real hardware, and their beta goal (version 0.5 which supports USB, wifi and is at least minimally useful on supported hardware) is still years away. But I never had the impression that gaming was a particularly important focus of the project.
ReactOS is mostly about the reimplementation of an older NT kernel, with a focus on driver compatibility. Their ultimate goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP such that any driver written for XP would work. That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
> That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
In most of those applications, you just leave the computer be and don't touch it. In some cases (especially medical devices) you may not even be allowed to touch it for legal/compliance reasons. If the hardware dies, you most likely find the exact same machine (or something equivalent) and run the same OS - there are many scenarios where replacing the computer with something modern is not viable (lack of the correct I/O interfaces, computer is too fast, etc.)
If there were software bugs which could impact operations, they probably would have arisen during the first few years when there was a support contract. As for security issues - you lock down access and disconnect from any network with public internet access.
All that assumes that ReactOS is a perfect drop-in replacement for whatever version of Windows you are replacing, and that is probably not a good assumption.
In my experience, things like ReactOS would have been more useful in parts of the world with let's say a less thorough approach to things like compliance.
A factory has a CNC machine delivered fifteen years ago that's been run by the same computer all along. The computer eventually gives up the ghost, the original IT guy who got the vendor's drivers and installed them on that computer with an FCKGW copy of WinXP is long gone. Asking the current IT guy, the easiest solution (in a hypothetical timeline where a usable ReactOS exists) is to take the cheapest computer available, install ReactOS, throw in drivers from the original vendor CD at the bottom of some shelf and call it a day.
We might have to agree to disagree here, but I think the scenario where the IT guy uses XP and "finds" a license for it is the approach I would take if I was put in this situation. If the vendor for the CNC machine certified/tested their machine against Windows XP, and does not offer any support for new operating systems, I would be very reluctant to use anything else - whether it is another version of Windows which could accept the same drivers, or an open source clone. Again, I'm assuming that ReactOS manages to be a perfect clone, which is may or may not be in practice.
> But I never had the impression that gaming was a particularly important focus of the project.
> ReactOS is mostly about the reimplementation of an older NT kernel, with a focus on driver compatibility. Their ultimate goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP such that any driver written for XP would work. That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
Fifteen years ago, they could have focused on both the industrial and consumer use cases. There were a lot of people who really didn't want to leave Windows XP in 2010-11, even just for their personal use.
Admittedly, FLOSS wasn't nearly as big of a thing back then like it is now. A larger share of GNU/Linux and BSD installs were on servers at the time, so it was a community mainly focused on commercial and industrial applications. Maybe that's what drove their focus.
It functionally is a project from fifteen-twenty years ago. Development activity was somewhat slow but steady but it largely fizzled out around I think 2018? The project tried to get political and financial support of the Russian government but failed to secure it, Aleksey Bragin transitioned to working in the crypto space, and of course with every year the number of potential users dependent on Windows 2000/XP is decreasing.
I think by now ReactOS is best viewed as an enthusiast research / challenge project with no practical use, like GNU Hurd. Just as Hurd is interesting in terms of how kernels can be done, but isn't a viable candidate for practical use, ReactOS is now in the same category. Very interesting as an exercise in reimplementing NT from scratch using clean room techniques but no longer a system that has a shot at gaining any adoption.