ReactOS 0.3.14 Released With Improved Networking Stack 176
An anonymous reader wrote in with news of the latest release of ReactOS, a project to create a complete reimplementation of Windows. The highlights of this release are the integration of a new network stack based upon lwIP, the ability to build using Microsoft's C compiler, and Wifi support. There are a few options for trying it out (emulator image and a livecd amongst others) and source code over at Sourceforge.
Windows 98, finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, FOSS Windows 98 for the masses! How we've missed you...
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Didn't you read the headline? "improved networking stack" -- That was XP!
At least the project is in the spirit of things: http://www.reactos.org/about.html [reactos.org]
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Re:Windows 98, finally! (Score:5, Informative)
From reactos.org [reactos.org]:
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-NT architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level.
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and aren't win7 and win8 still more or less continuations of that "branch" over at MS anyways?
anyhow, reactos seems like a very well done oss project actually. they have working stuff and ms driver compatibility is actually pretty cool(though they don't seem to support modern 3rd party gfx card drivers too well, if they had that and sound.. well, fuck, then it would be a fun os to run more seriously, but even now it's a pretty cool hobby project, certainly cooler than yet another bsd anyways).
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Funny you mention this because the last few family machines I've had to mess with (and all of the computers that haven't been replaced yet at my wife's workplace) have been Pentium4/256MB Dell or Dell-knockoffs. What was with all the WinXP P4s with only 256MB of RAM? They don't run half-bad with 512 minimum or especially if you max out the RAM. But it's downright painful to run XP with a piddling 256MB....I can't believe they ever sold them.
Re:Windows 98, finally! (Score:4, Insightful)
256MB of RAM was quite usable on early versions of XP. SP2 bumped the performance requirements up quite a bit, and you'll probably want at least 768MB to run a up-to-date SP3 install.
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But it's downright painful to run XP with a piddling 256MB....I can't believe they ever sold them.
It's a damn shame too, but it illustrates the greediness of computer manufacturers.
:P) called Apple, inevitably about his iPhone, and was recommended to upgrade to Lion. While it solved his problem, his computer became nearly unusably slow. Apple tells h
In turn I ask, "What about all of the Vista machines sold with 1 or 2GB of RAM?"
It's worth mentioning that Apple seems to think that Lion can run on 2GB as well.
My boss (sometimes working for the individual I work for can be maddening, but it pays well
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wow, you would have had to have been really moronic to have remade a 20-year-old OS back in 1991...
Re:Windows 98, finally! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Windows 98, finally! (Score:5, Informative)
Yes you can. Microsoft created the Windows Academic Program for teaching the kernel internals in an academic setting. You get access to the Windows Research Kernel with source code.
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Then you too can forever be polluted in a way that makes you unable to work on any other OS, WINE, or dozens of other commercial and free software projects!
Who in the hell would want to hire someone exposed to that to work on their software? You would be living in fear of the MS lawsuit.
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Who in the hell would want to hire someone exposed to that to work on their software? You would be living in fear of the MS lawsuit.
People who will never have to write an OS, or anything similar to an OS, as part of their job.
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Who in the hell would want to hire someone exposed to that to work on their software? You would be living in fear of the MS lawsuit.
And yet the program has been in existence for years without a single lawsuit of this nature. It appears that your fears are completely unfounded.
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I bet the program is not that big, and not many people who get into it end up working on this sort of code.
Sure you can look at NT kernel code and then go dev accounting software, that is not the fear I have.
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mods have no sense of humour.
Why don't you ask Dave Cutler? (Score:2)
VAX/VMS. [wikipedia.org]
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By the time ReactOS is ready, that opportunity would have closed. Had ReactOS even version 1 been ready now, it would have been a good alternative for XP customers. It's nowhere near that, so people currently on XP will either have to junk their systems for Windows 7 or Windows 8, or look @ more established alternatives, like Linux or BSD.
Also, I don't see Microsoft reacting, in a manner of speaking, to ReactOS. They are doing what they can to move the market to Windows 8, and their lowering their pric
Time to switch operating systems (Score:5, Funny)
At this point I think it's time for me to upgrade from FreeDOS to ReactOS.
Re:Time to switch operating systems (Score:4, Informative)
At this point I think it's time for me to upgrade from FreeDOS to ReactOS.
FreeDOS has legitimate uses -- I have found it on manufacturers' BIOS updater images.
I, of course, do my updates under Linux with flashrom utility, but I have some taste and sanity, things that most people lose after being exposed to BIOS source code.
Re:Time to switch operating systems (Score:5, Informative)
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It's also used in quite a few embedded systems running low-end x86 chips. The advantage of something like DOS in this respect is that it's almost like not having an OS, but it still gives you a basic filesystem and program launcher, then gets out of your way.
Actually that would be the original GRUB (or GRUB2 if you like having a requirement for boot media that contains modules -- I don't because my embedded system that uses it, boots from a section in the same flash chip as BIOS).
How does one do that? (Score:3)
I don't because my embedded system that uses it, boots from a section in the same flash chip as BIOS
Pardon me, but I was recently fascinated with the idea that something like that might be possible---Stuffing an INT13-reading bootloader, like GRUB4DOS or SYSLINUX, into an archive in the BIOS and then strapping it like any other option ROM.
I was always fascinated with the idea of separating the initial boot program from the hard disk layout and into the board itself. Running a bootloader from the BIOS ROM would technically allow that to happen, I think, and I thought curiously about the idea of embedding
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I don't think, I can be of much help with that beyond the obvious -- unless you are lucky with Coreboot support on your hardware, BIOS development requires licensing some very proprietary, ugly and sanity-destroying code. I believe, Coreboot already can run GRUB2 from the same flash as itself, so that would be a healthier direction if it is available on your hardware platform.
The modified utilities used in that particular project (grub and flashrom) are at http://www.meyersound.com/opensource/code/ [meyersound.com] , howeve
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Really? Windows games in an arcade cabinet?
in the words of foghorn leghorn (Score:3, Funny)
it's a joke, son
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Its all about DosBOX these days. it runs very well and still actively maintained.
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Re:Time to switch operating systems (Score:5, Informative)
Also, DOSBox is not only still being poked at, a lot of games on Steam use DOSBox to run.
Re:Time to switch operating systems (Score:5, Informative)
DOSEMU is still maintained, though it doesn't get a whole lot of development these days; not a huge deal with it to fix yet. As other replies explained, DOSBox is usually better for games (especially for sound support), but DOSBox has a strict development policy of being only for games, and there's plenty of DOS applications DOSBox does not run and likely will not run in the near future. DOSEMU packages FreeDOS with it and is nearly 100% compatible with all DOS software.
One thing I particularly like about DOSEMU over DOSBox is the filesystem handling. Everything in DOSEMU is mounted as a network share inside of DOS, even the C: drive; this allows you to change around files and whatnot on the native Linux filesystem and have the changes immediately appear in DOS (can't do that with DOSBox). Additionally, DOSEMU has long filename suppport, which is a huge godsend; DOSBox only supports 8+3 names (with its own muddling of non-DOS-compatible names behind the scenes... DOS games don't need long filename support so DOSBox is likely to never support LFNs).
All that being said, I highly recommend avoiding the release version and go straight to the subversion trunk. There are many quite serious bugs in 1.4.0, but I'm not aware of any that exist in the trunk; the developer is rather quick to look into and fix problems when they're reported.
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Why would you use FreeDOS over any flavor of Linux?
Because it's DOS compatible.
Re:Time to switch operating systems (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would you use FreeDOS over any flavor of Linux?
1. You can boot it from a floppy (or CD or USB key) in seconds, which is perfect for basic testing of older hardware.
2. Many situations do not require multitasking, ie: point of sale, etc. Many good but older point of sale programs exist that run in DOS. You can back up the entire system in seconds. I'm actually considering it for a system as we speak, since I already own the $3000 software.
3. Many situations do not require internet access (see point of sale, above).
4. Great as a standalone, or for dual booting, or virtualization for playing old games.
5. Flashing BIOS.
6. Linux isn't the answer to all computing needs. Many of them, but not all.
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5. Flashing BIOS.
How old is your computer?
- My 5 year old motherboard can flash the BIOS from the BIOS. All that's needed is a floppy with the firmware on it.
- My dad's 3 year old motherboard can flash the BIOS from the BIOS. All that's needed is a floppy or USB stick, or CD with the firmware on it.
- My girlfriend's 1 year old motherboard can flash the BIOS from an app within Windows.
I actually had a brainfart a few months ago when I needed to update the BIOS on a friend's computer. I spent all afternoon prepping a USB stic
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I wouldn't be so sure of that. DosBox on Linux will probably run more games than FreeDOS, especially if you try to run FreeDOS on modern hardware.
What's the point??!?!?! (Score:5, Interesting)
There are many possible reasons why people want a functioning clone of MS Windows that can use the same drivers etc.
If nothing else, it's an interesting project.
Why not Linux? Because drivers don't always work. Why not WINE? ReactOS and WINE share a lot of code, but WINE is aiming to solve a different problem. Why not just use old MS Windows? Because the source is not there, and neither is support.
People would find a use for a Free MS Windows clone the same way that people find a use for a Free MS DOS clone (FreeDOS).
I for one am excited about ReactOS. Here's hoping they continue the good work for many years
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Duplicating decade old technology is an interesting project?
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Re:What's the point??!?!?! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What's the point??!?!?! (Score:4, Informative)
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Not according to ReactOS's home page.
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html [reactos.org]
"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 a
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Cite any improvements that ReactOS has made or is going to make. Otherwise, your claim is baseless.
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Why do you keep trying to twist this?
Hanlon's Razor [wikipedia.org]: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Tango's Corollary: Don't call people dishonest/retarded/insane just for not agreeing with you.
Re:What's the point??!?!?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Projects like ReactOS, Wine [winehq.org], DOSBox [dosbox.com], etc. allow you to have another possible path in that uncertain future. Your program might not work out-of-the-box, but you have the source to tinker with and try to get it to work.
That is probably the same reason for running Wine on Windows [winehq.org], which is probably better than running an old program within a virtual machine [microsoft.com].
Soon enough, you will probably run all of your programs in a browser [slashdot.org] anyway. But I digress
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You do realize you can still run XP all you like even after it's been EOLed, right? Why not just keep running XP instead of an alpha-quality clone?
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So long as you are happy never receiving another update, security or otherwise.
Don't get me wrong - I seriously doubt that ReactOS will be up to XP-standards in 2 years, but such a thing certainly WOULD be useful.
Re:What's the point??!?!?! (Score:5, Insightful)
Um, because hardware evolves. Before too long nobody will have XP drivers for any hardware that is being manufactured. Compatible hardware will gradually cease to be available. Ever try to find a working MFM hard drive to put in that original IBM PC with MS-DOS? How about a Soundblaster card which is the only sound hardware that a lot of DOS games supported?
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Alpha quality doesn't mean unsuitable for a certain purpose, if it supports a minimal subset.
One particular use is in software support where an external client may have a certain configuration of XP/Vista/7 that is unable to be deployed on the company's network for licensing, availability reasons.
Having a free clone is another implementation of 'Windows' that may demonstrate a particular fault not detectable on a developer's machine. On more than one occasion my bacon has been saved by running wine on linux
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To be fair, it's the 14th revision of the 3rd major alpha release...
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In my case, I am looking at using React OS when my developer version of Win8 expires. I run a steam chat bot in a windows VM that connects through steam. If I could get steam working on this thing (Tried - can't - yet) I could avoid paying the microsoft tax to run my otherwise free software steam bot. I haven't tried installing the .net 3.5 redistributable package on this yet either, which could be another hurdle.
That said, it's a pretty impressive chunk of code so far - I'm posting this from inside
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Except that your examples are not trying to be exact duplicates.
And didn't answer why.
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Gladly, if enjoying duplicating Windows XP is required.
Only one minor disappointment. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll just keep building the USB branch until then.
Gone a long way (Score:1)
Re:Gone a long way (Score:4, Insightful)
daily use
To do WHAT?
Re:Gone a long way (Score:4, Funny)
To do WHAT?
Look at pron on IE6,
Run some malware,
You know, the usual....
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Dooooooomed. (Score:3, Interesting)
Worst case: ReactOS succeeds, Microsoft sues either the devs or the users for infringing several thousand patents.
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It's getting harder and harder to find a "country", which is not simply a vassal of the USA. All Europe is lost already.
Almost like Hurd (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been hearing of this OS since the time I was a member of an Alpha-NT group. They've been taking all these years, and are not even on 1.x even now. These guys are giving Hurd strong competition on who takes forever to come up w/ an OS, particularly given all the FOSS OSs out there.
On the project itself, I think that it had a window of opportunity when MS abandoned the MIPS and Alpha versions of NT years ago. At that time, there were NT users for this platform worried about where it would leave them, and this would definitely have been a godsend. However, on the x86 platform, it's pretty much irrelevant - either people have Windows, and if that's not acceptable, they can run Linux. As it is, there are some things, like NTFS file system support that ReactOS doesn't/can't support, so it's not like even close to a complete substitute. The only people I can imgaine who might have (had) an use for it would be NT/RISC users, but that assumes that they never moved from NT to Linux or RISC to x64.
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The fiasco that will be Windows 8 on ARM will be that people's shrinkwrapped Windows software, which they've sunk lots of cash in, won't run on Windows 8 on ARM, simply b'cos ARM can't run x86 binaries. Well, guess what - ReactOS/ARM won't be able to run them either. But any Windows 8 or ROS tablet maker who makes a tablet based on Fusion or Medfield won't have that problem, and in that scenario, unless the Metro UI is found out to be unsuitable as a tablet interface, Windows 8 will do just fine. Oh, and
The race is on (Score:4, Interesting)
to see if they can they release version 1.0 of ReactOS before the X86 architecture becomes obsolete.
Sup Dawg (Score:3)
I heard you like old things, so I put a reverse-engineered Windows clone in your VM so you can simulate while you emulate.
ntfs3g, fuse, ext4 ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Without support for modern file systems, It can not be taken seriously.
They should not dismiss suggestions to adopt use of fuse based filesystems such as ntfs3g, as this may likely be the most direct way to get support for popular file systems.
I liked the software download center (Score:2)
It is a very useful addition.
That was when I tested their last release.
I wonder whether they have integrated the WINE code enough so one could do stupid stuff, like trying out the only DirectX 4.0 or 5.0 game that must be out there, Chaos Overlords, on it?
I'm not sure that I would go these lengths though, I'd probably have to configure the downloaded VM image I use to try ReactOS.
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it's still the same mess of code with a fraction of the hardware support that linux or even bsd has.
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it claims to have binary comparability with normal windows drivers. but give you a list of 'supported' drivers that it actually works on. that list is a fraction of what both linux or bsd support.
not saying they should drop it, just saying it has more attention then it deserves as it is just a hobby os. it's never going to be in a usable state.
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Re:I'm normally all for "just because" but... (Score:5, Insightful)
If these talented people have enjoyed the time they spent building ReactOS, then they haven't wasted it at all.
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I've been involved in Linux since Red Hat was pre 1.0, I have worked on numerous projects and volunteered time for things like the OLPC project... so sorry AC, but save it. There are projects that looking back I had wasted a lot of time and effort on that were "just because" type things, as I now get older I look back and realize the folly of youth and wish I had maybe spent that time on something more productive or valuable. They are free to do what they want, but I doubt this will ever be more than Alpha/
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There are projects that looking back I had wasted a lot of time and effort on that were "just because" type things, as I now get older I look back and realize the folly of youth and wish I had maybe spent that time on something more productive or valuable.
Yes, and if I'd not dropped out of college and spent a decade in radio, I might now be a really good developer, instead of someone who's merely knowledgeable enough about programming to write convincingly about it.
"The true scholar prizes all drafts, early and late."
The worst waste of your lifespan is using up major portions of it to second-guess yourself. It's unnecessary to rake yourself over the coals in order to learn from your missteps.
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Re:I'm normally all for "just because" but... (Score:5, Insightful)
They said that about Mozilla for years. Sometimes the bazaar produces something that only few people find to be of any value for many many years that suddenly becomes of value to many people. Probably most projects never make it, period, but as long as someone finds it interesting to work on, more power to them.
If you don't find it of value, don't invest time or resources in it. :)
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Well, I guess this gives an alternative to an alternative for that old pentium 100 I have in the attic...
In all seriousness, I guess this COULD be eventually useful if they manage to get it working with modern DirectX games and such... While I'm a Linux guy, I do enjoy gaming, natively and in WINE. ReactOS as I understand it contributes code to WINE [reactos.org] (and vice-versa)...so IMHO it's still a win. Not necessarily epic yet, but it could be. That symbiotic relationship is worth something...I'm just not sure what.
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I view this in terms of the number of clients of mine who come to me after hosing their Windows machines and have also managed to lose their official Windows product keys or installation media. Sure, I could charge them the cost of replacement, but if and when ROS works - well enough, of course - it would save them money and me the hassle.
And it may be "old" Windows, but lots of my customers don't need Win 7. Heck, even at my day job - sounds like seamen's - we're still using XP Pro. This work is not "wi
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There is lots of legacy software out there that has never been ported to newer versions of Windows.
It is very myopic to declare this project has no value simply because you cannot think of a good reason.
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If you really try you can come up with tons, but at the end of the day this is alpha software (and has been for quite a while, and will continue to) it is not viable for much of anything and is more a proof of concept than anything and by the time it is (if) beta or even ready to be stable/released it is going to be even less so. I like hacks for hacks sake and I have been a part of many, I'm just saying that this is a lot of effort and work for essentially nothing. If you are eagerly waiting with baited br
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They are not coding against a moving target but a known entity i.e. XP. So I don't see why this project shouldn't eventually grow out of Beta. Attract more developers and that'll happen all the sooner.
I have two old educational Windows programs for my kids that no longer work on Win 7. I have an old XP machine for them but it bugs me that XP is no longer supported and vulnerabilities won't be fixed. React OS would make for a good alternative.
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Again, I get that but this project began in 1998. That's 14 years. I was using Red Hat pre 1.0 at the time I checked this project out initially. I admire your optimism, but I don't see it happening.
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Well, according to the screenshot you can actually run quite some useful programs (Firefox, Abiword etc.).
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Except that many cooperations continue to cling to XP as staff retraining on 7 and the cost of upgrades aren't justified in a struggling economy. Purchasing new hardware for which only Win7 drivers exist is problematic. When you have the source to the OS, writing drivers that can be possibly based on other platforms such as Linux or BSD may be a blessing. A free stable clone is a migration path.
Further, not every platform is x86, nor does every use case require binary compatibility. e.g. Can Windows XP, not
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Upgrade paths.
Hardware fails and businesses expand to require additional desktops. New hardware (e.g. 'Designed for Windows 8') might not even be capable of booting to XP in several years time.
So the user/sysadmin is then forced to consider a choice of different operating systems on new hardware. The choices as he said: Mac OS, the new version of Windows or some Linux variant.
A drop-in replacement for XP on new hardware, providing a very similar user experience to existing installations may prove useful to
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