Non-Windows Windows OS - ReactOS?

Belnahua

Has anyone had experience using ReactOS? Just wanting an idea of if anybody is using it and how they're getting on with it, thanks?

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

ReactOS® is a free, modern operating system based on the design of Windows® XP/2003. Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windows® architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture.

The main goal of the ReactOS project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This will allow your Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system. Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward. The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow you to remove Windows® and install ReactOS without the end user noticing the change.
Please bear in mind that ReactOS 0.3.6 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is not recommended for everyday use.

fwor

Interesting - I wonder how far it will get before Microsoft's lawyers are on the case...

The LiveCD appears to be very small - just over 100MB when unzipped? So I guess it will be fast but not very functional.

Just tried to boot it on an old P4-based machine, and it started to load up, but died with just a black screen. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has given it a go.

Browntoa

I'll give it a go tomorrow

let you know

Conor_3

Its in Alpha stage. Don't expect to be downloading stuff off the net and installing it without a lot of grief and forget your wifi working.

Browntoa

doing the liveCd

will do it on my "junk" pc

[Deleted User]

And expect a lot of hard locks

d900

unless u have loads of spare time i wouldnt even get started..pick an OS that people write software/drivers for

mdbarber

looks interesting.. are the games all opengl ? or you think there is some sort of dx emulation?

fwor

d900 wrote: »

unless u have loads of spare time i wouldnt even get started..pick an OS that people write software/drivers for

If they get it right, shouldn't Windows drivers work?

Just tried it on a P3-based laptop, and it works reasonably well. Ok, no USB support (with this chipset, at least) and very basic fonts, but at least it functions. Not a bad start for an Alpha release.

They are probably a good few months away from something that's usable in the real world, depending how much resource they have, but I hope they stick at it - good luck to them.

[Deleted User]

They've taken a decade to get this far, I wouldn't be expecting much soon

Conor_3

fwor wrote: »

If they get it right, shouldn't Windows drivers work?

Just tried it on a P3-based laptop, and it works reasonably well. Ok, no USB support (with this chipset, at least) and very basic fonts, but at least it functions. Not a bad start for an Alpha release.

They are probably a good few months away from something that's usable in the real world, depending how much resource they have, but I hope they stick at it - good luck to them.

If we told you that they started ReactOS when Windows 98 was released and they're only at this stage, do you share the same view that its not a bad start and they're only a few months away from something usable?