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Emulation (Games) Windows Open Source Operating Systems Wine

ReactOS 0.4.2 Released: Supports Linux Filesystems, .NET Applications, and Doom 3 (reactos.org) 145

Posted by EditorDavid from the officially-released dept.
Continuing its rapid release cycle, ReactOS has unveiled version 0.4.2 of its free "open-source binary-compatible Windows re-implementation." Slashdot reader jeditobe reports that this new version can now read and write various Linux/Unix file systems like Btrfs and ext (and can read ReiserFS and UFS), and also runs applications like Thunderbird and 7-Zip. ReactOS 0.4.2 also features Cygwin support, .NET 2.0 and 4.0 application support, among other updated packages and revised external dependencies such as Wine and UniATA. The team also worked to improve overall user experience...

ReactOS is free. You can boot your desktop or laptop from it. It looks like Windows (a 10-year-old version, anyway), so you already know how to use it. And it'll run some Windows and DOS applications, maybe including DOS games that regular 64-bit Windows can no longer touch. These videos even show ReactOS running Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Doom 3.
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ReactOS 0.4.2 Released: Supports Linux Filesystems, .NET Applications, and Doom 3 More

ReactOS 0.4.2 Released: Supports Linux Filesystems, .NET Applications, and Doom 3

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  • Yes, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <rodrigogirao@POL ... om minus painter> on Saturday August 27, 2016 @01:36PM (#52781441) Homepage

    ...can it run Crysis?

  • The OS That Just Won't Quit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wjcofkc ( 964165 ) on Saturday August 27, 2016 @01:40PM (#52781463)
    For the longest time, article after article of slow progress I did not even think the developers took this seriously beyond beyond some coding fun. Color me impressed. This might take off in a few years. Now that I think of it, I am reminded of another OS that was relegated "maybe someday".

    • Re:The OS That Just Won't Quit (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 27, 2016 @01:55PM (#52781497)

      For the longest time, article after article of slow progress I did not even think the developers took this seriously beyond beyond some coding fun.

      Remember they are re-creating Windows NT (and more) from the ground up. It's a big job. Looking to how long it took Linus to make his kernel isn't really a good metric. Linux wasn't the first free UNIX (the BSDs) were plus Linux got all the GNU tools. So UNIX like operating systems have been in development for a long time. Since WinNT is a different architecture it will take lots of work to get off the ground.

      Another thing to keep in mind is they are going for internal compatibility as well. So it's not just about documented APIs but undocumented APIs. The reverse engineering adds another task to their already lengthy list.

      Honestly I check out the ReactOS code base every few days and look at the progress they are making. It's pretty amazing. I contributed a few patches but they really need lots more help.

      I'm no Windows fanboy (I'm an OpenBSD fanboy actually) I do think that having a diverse OS ecosystem is really important and the work that the ReactOS guys are doing is very important. I'm glad they get press coverage here in the hopes that it may attract some developers with Win32 experience.

      • Re:The OS That Just Won't Quit (Score:5, Interesting)

        by LVSlushdat ( 854194 ) on Saturday August 27, 2016 @02:27PM (#52781603)

        I spent close to 20 years supporting MS products. I retired in 2010, and soon decided I was through with anything MS.. All of my home systems are 100% Linux, *however* its great to see an OS that likely allow one to run a Windows program that, for whatever reason, won't work in Wine. I don't expect to have this happen, but one never knows.. After seeing what a shitshow Windows 10 is, privacy-wise and MS a bang-up job of using just about every malware vector to get their shitshow on everybody's computer, I couldn't be happier to have left MS in the dirt....

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by wjcofkc ( 964165 )
        And I am a FreeBSD fanboy : ) But I agree with everything you say. This is a big challenge and I have the highest respect for the team pursuing. I have never bothered running it (until tomorrow), but I feel like it is part of my life for how long I have been watching it.

      • Linux wasn't the first free UNIX (the BSDs) were plus Linux got all the GNU tools.

        Actually, it kinda was. BSD was still tied up in the court battle with AT&T at the time. That is the reason I've seen stated that Linus wrote a new kernel.

      • Reactos is more important than many may think. If it ever gains proper compatibilty with Windows seven MS can kiss their dominance goodbye.

        As we've seen with DOSBox, the ability to run existing games may make many gamers simply decide not to go to win10 and beyond.

        While the ReactOS people need more hands, they also need the GPU manufacturers to test the drivers under ReactOS.

        Does anybody know if ReactOS can run the exiting Win7 GPU drivers?

    • They do make continuous progress but they have few programmers and it's a lot of work to clone Windows down to the last API. So it will take a long time until it's somewhat mature and stable.
      Also the current target is Windows 2003 server so anything requiring a newer version or 64 bits won't run.
      So great work but still a long way to go

    • It could do for old Win16/32 apps what DOSbox did for old DOS apps, letting users and commercial vendors run their old software on modern hardware.

      • You mean FreeDOS. The equivalent of DOSbox is Wine.

        • I meant DOSbox, in the way that it would be used. I'm sure ReactOS would be run in a VM and not as a primary OS, as a method to run obscure third party apps that don't run well or at all on the primary OS. This is how people currently use DOSbox.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by snadrus ( 930168 )

      Its base-project (Wine) is already a standard Microsoft themselves uses for compatibility testing. As they cover more APIs, I suspect they will start closing-in, especially since they only implement what works and ignore projects Microsoft failed at (old mobile OS versions, for example). With Chakra-Core and other Microsoft open-source pieces, they can collect gains they don't even need to build.

      There may even be a time Microsoft sees this open-source project with "clean" C/C++ code superior to the multi-GB

    • Now that I think of it, I am reminded of another OS that was relegated "maybe someday".

      Gnu/Hurd?

  • Way to be on the ball, Slashdot! From their web site: "Release Date: 16 August 2016"

    I guess it is a good thing I follow Distrowatch instead, since they generally have OS release announcements within 24 hours.

  • Rapid release cycle (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ITRambo ( 1467509 ) on Saturday August 27, 2016 @02:08PM (#52781535)
    I appreciate the irony of a ten year development project being in a "rapid release cycle" at version 0.42.

  • ReactOS 0.4.2 also features Cygwin support

    That's pretty much all I need in an OS :)

  • To all the Windows complainers.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Tired of forced upgrades to Windows 10? Tired of not being able to select the patches to install? Tired of patches breaking entire classes of hardware and application? Kick these guys some money or contribute some of your skill and time. Linux is great for apps that have a FOSS alternative. But sometimes you just need Windows. This should be a priority for PCs everywhere.

  • I mean, what is the point behind developing a new version of Windows to run old software if you can't run Bob?

  • You already know (Score:3)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Saturday August 27, 2016 @03:03PM (#52781761)

    >"It looks like Windows (a 10-year-old version, anyway), so you already know how to use it."

    Really? What if you have been using Linux pretty much exclusively for a few decades? :)

    • Then you're the exception and not the rule, the sentence was not meant for you, and the only reason you are even responding to it is so you can not-so-subtly brag about how you don't own a TV^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H use linux.

  • LOOKS good, but what can it do? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by blind biker ( 1066130 ) on Saturday August 27, 2016 @03:35PM (#52781895) Journal

    I would be so very grateful to the ReactOS community if I could run Office (2007 is fine), Zotero and some version of SolidWorks on it. I don't even dare to install ReactOS to try, as the disappointment would be crushing. Basically, I hope to not be forced to install Windows 10.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      ReactOS already is able to run Office 2007.

      Also feel free to submit bug-reports related to Zotero and SolidWorks

      jira.reactos.org - bug-tracker

    • Install VirtualBox [virtualbox.org] and remember what Meat Loaf sang, "Two out of three ain't bad."

      ReactOS offers a LiveCD and a regular Windows bootable install disk version, [reactos.org]; either way it won't take you longer than 5 minutes to get to a usable desktop.

    • I would be so very grateful to the ReactOS community if I could run Office (2007 is fine), Zotero and some version of SolidWorks on it. I don't even dare to install ReactOS to try, as the disappointment would be crushing. Basically, I hope to not be forced to install Windows 10.

      I think a VM would be better suited. Unfortunately Virtualbox maybe but it is a shitty type2 hypervisor and so is the now no longer developered VMWare workstation.

      I seen a commercial version of KVM on linustechtips where he ran up to 7 virtual machines with full GPU access on a monster Xeon box running Windows 10 guests with some AMD Nano's all running with the native win64 Crimson drivers too!

      KVM lacks a gui, but if it supports direct access to the hardware you can run your Windows OS as a guest with all i

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kriston ( 7886 )

        What? VirtualBox is a very good type 2 hypervisor with hardware graphics acceleration and all the features anyone would need. I routinely run 6 large VMs on my workstation using VirtualBox under Windows.

        There's no need to spread false ideas about VirtualBox.

  • Why don't they do a 64-bit or 128-bit extension of NTFS, and make that their native file system. Make it backward compatible to support reading NTFS files & directories, and a way to write those as well? At least that way, it's a way out for people trying to flee Microsoft, but who are not comfortable w/ Linux, BSD or Apple

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by janoc ( 699997 )

      And why should they? What is so great about NTFS apart from it being ancient and slow? Even Microsoft was hoping to abandon it in Vista, but the replacement fell victim to the scaling down of the (overly ambitious) objectives.

      • And why should they? What is so great about NTFS apart from it being ancient and slow? Even Microsoft was hoping to abandon it in Vista, but the replacement fell victim to the scaling down of the (overly ambitious) objectives.

        Gee I don't know. Perhaps people may want to read their data they created from Windows.

        • Precisely! To answer janoc, compatibility!!! Nobody buys/gets Windows just for its own sake, the way they might w/ Mac OS, Linux or BSD. They get it b'cos they want to run software that only works w/ Windows, read files that were created in Windows! Hence, ReactOS supporting ext or btrfs doesn't mean a thing. What it has to support is NTFS. Since Microsoft does have patents that preclude anyone else from writing to NTFS, what I was suggesting that ReactOS do is slap on a file system that is compatible

  • This is a cute project but it still doesn't do anything.

    It can't even run applications installed through its own application manager.

    When I installed Firefox using the built in application manager, the OS froze, then after a reset it wouldn't boot.

  • It is nice and all to keep me from spending $100 every 2-3 years on a new OS. But that's not where the money is. Active Directory and Client Access Licenses are the money makers. Too much money. When ReactOS performs in the server space, then my pants will get tight over the new version.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      Active Directory is just a subset of LDAP and there are plenty of other implementations, including the samba one that is very similar.

      Client Access Licenses are the money makers

      They almost fit the category of hidden costs and it's almost as if they were designed to cause cost overruns in projects. Since the stuff I support was never ported to MS windows it's been like watching a train wreck happen to others. At least with shitloads per seat product licensing you know exactly how much a project is going t

  • The problem with ReactOS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by N3wsByt3 ( 758224 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @10:26AM (#52784933) Journal

    Does not lay within it's technical capabilities and prowess, but with it's management skills and ability to create a community.

    For years I've been a fan of ReactOS, actively participating and contributing to the community, albeit not in the form of a coder. Which, in the (still) current ReactOS mentality, is the only thing that counts for the brass, apparently. Testing ReactOS on a dedicated real-life machine (thus, not in VM), debugging, translating, making info-pages on their wikipedia: nothing really matters to the 'elite' of ReactOS. They just consider you some sort of fodder, and the moment you ask for a bit more transparency (on their financial side, for instance), or try to address the complete lack of community involvement, they bork (and bark) at you - and worse. Time and again I've tried to explain this in the past, that a successful project is NOT merely depended on the technical/coder side of things, but also how you establish a community, and try to involve people in your project. There were some half-baked trials at it, but those were mere lipservice, where it was always a consideration of a top-down approach, not a bottom-up way of seeing things.

    Ergo; in the 20 years of their project, they have not succeeded in gathering 1/100th of the community that other projects like Linux have. Again and again I've pointed this out to them, but to no avail. They just refuse to see it, and only want things done strictly to their wishes, with their attitude of finding no other (real) importance to the project than 'code'. Which, granted, is an important part, but which will NOT get you a lively, engaging, and growing community - which is an absolute necessity for any open source project to know success. Eventually, since I kept hitting that nail, they got annoyed (not: they realised the error of their ways) and kicked me out too, the so many-th person who was a tester/sponsor/translator/helper of ReactOS they managed to drive away.

    Whatever; so I went away, which is what they wanted. But what did it help them, then? Nothing at all. They view constructive criticism as a threat, not as an opportunity to better themselves and the project. They don't value anything someone does outside of their little constraints, and outside their preconceived notions as to what they see as important, yet have the mouth full of 'community-involvement'. Whatever you do, how many years you may have sponsored or helped out as a non-coder, you just are not counted as having done anything worthwhile. They have no inkling of an idea how to get a thriving community where you allow the bottom-up approach as well.

    It's a sad thing to say, but the whole thing is run by people with overblown ego's, trying to protect their little turf and egotistical whims, ignoring anyone else, and being autistically elitist in wanting to decide virtually everything to the minute detail. Its only a community-project in name, but not in essence. And that's why, even after 20 years of operation, their project is just a small-scale project who - in comparison with other projects - has almost nothing to show for. They make some small technical progress year after year, that's true, but they fail to realise how much their ego-driven top-down approach has muffled the project to achieve the grandeur and support it could have had, had the top been more prone to some input from the people actually supporting it.

    I've poured hundreds of dollars in it, and spend years on it helping them in my own way, only to kicked out when I pointed out their mistakes and lack of transparency. I still lie, the project, but I can not, in good conscience, support (most of) the people running that program/project. they've done it with me, as they've done it with dozens of people: it's no surprise, thus, that they're still at the small scale they are, without any community to speak off. They can't get any traction, because they kill off everything that would get them traction. There are some good coders under them, to be sure, but almost all of them lack the ma

  • Feel free to join ReactOS telegram chat https://telegram.me/reactos [telegram.me]
  • Not trolling, genuinely asking - I'm not a programmer, but in the Free Software Movement I've always heard that Windows code was a mess and Windows is an example of awful architectural design. So, what is the point in making a free version of it rather than bettering Wine or PlayOnLinux?

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