Comment by snovymgodym
2 days ago
ReactOS, the effort to create a free and open source Windows NT reimplementation.
It has been in existence in some form or another for nearly 30 years, but did not gain the traction it needed and as of writing it's still not in a usable state on real hardware. It's not abandoned, but progress on it is moving so slow that I doubt we'll ever see it be released in a state that's useful for real users.
It's too bad, because a drop in Windows replacement would be nice for all the people losing Windows 10 support right now.
On the other hand, I think people underestimate the difficulty involved in the project and compare it unfavorably to Linux, BSD, etc. Unix and its source code was pretty well publicly documented and understood for decades before those projects started, nothing like that ever really existed for Windows.
They had no chance. Look how long it tooks for Wine to get where they are. Their project is Wine + a kernel + device drivers compatibility, and a moving target.
ReactOS right now focuses on Windows XP era hardware and compatibility, also not guaranteed to work outside a VM.
> ReactOS, the effort to create a free and open source Windows NT reimplementation.
Some projects creep along slowly until something triggers an interest and suddenly they leap ahead.
MAME's Tandy 2000 implementation was unusable, until someone found a copy of Windows 1.0 for the Tandy 2000, then the emulation caught up until Windows ran.
Maybe ReactOS will get a big influx of activity after Windows 10 support goes offline in a couple days, or even shortly after when you can't turn AI spying off, not even three times a year.
Not so long ago there was a leak of windows’ source code, up to xp and 2003 server… the leak was so complete there are videos on YouTube about people building and booting (!!!) windows from there.
And yet, no big leap in ReactOS (at least for now).
IIRC ReactOs forbids you from contributing if you had access to the windows source code in some way shape or form.
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Leaks like this actually slow down ReactOS development.
The project is supposed to be a clean-room reverse engineering effort. If you even see Windows code, you are compromised, and should not work on ReactOS.
Wine, Proton and virtualization all got good enough that there's no need for a half-baked binary-compatible Windows reimplementation, and I think that took a lot of the oxygen out of what could have been energy towards ReactOS. It's a cool concept but not really a thing anybody requires.
> I think people underestimate the difficulty involved in the project
I don't think people do, it sounds like a nearly impossible struggle, and at the end you get a Windows clone. I can't imagine hating yourself enough to work on it for an extended period of time for no money and putting yourself and your hard work in legal risk. It's a miracle we have Wine and serious luck that we have Proton.
People losing Windows 10 support need to move on. There's Linux if you want to be free, and Apple if you still prefer to be guided. You might lose some of your video games. You can still move to Windows 11 if you think that people should serve their operating systems rather than vice versa.
"putting yourself and your hard work in legal risk"
Like what? I'm genuinely curious what personal risks faces anyone from contributing to ReactOS. I also am curious what kind of legal risk may threaten the work? I mean, even in the unlikely scenario that something gets proven illegal and ordered to be dismissed from the project, what would prevent any such particular expunged part to be re-implemented by some paid contractor (now under legally indisputable circumstances), thus rendering the initial effort (of legal action) moot?
The easiest way to avoid patent liabilities is to always be 20 years behind.
20 years behind get us back to Windows XP, that had a better experience than Windows 11 anyway.
I've heard people say this, and believed it myself for a long time, but recently I set up a windows XP VM and was shocked by how bad the quality of life was.
I think nostalgia is influencing this opinion quite a bit, and we don't realize the mountain of tiny usability improvements that have been made since XP
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