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ReactOS 0.4.0 Screencast and Screenshots
ReactOS 0.4.0 Screencast
Quote:
Nearly ten years ago the ReactOS Project released version 0.3.0. Today we are proud to announce the formal release of version 0.4.0. A great deal of work has gone into making this release happen and as we look back it is remarkable to consider how far the project has come since that release a decade ago. This release is both a celebration of and a testament to everything that the ReactOS team and community has achieved together. Thank you to all of you for having stood by the project for this long and we hope rewarding journey. For those of you chomping at the bit to check out the release, go to the download page to get it now.
Here we document some of the highlights that separate 0.4.0 from not just the 0.3.17 release but also the cumulative achievements that the 0.3.x series achieved.
First of course the bulletpoint shortlist for those of you who don't want to wade through my giant mountain of text.
User-Centric Improvements
ext2 read/write and NTFS read support
New explorer shell and theme support
SerialATA support
Sound support
USB support
VirtualBox and VirtualPC support
Wireless networking
Developer-Centric Improvements
CMake support for GCC and MSVC compilation
Compilation times significantly improved
GDB remote debugging interface for kernel debugging
WinDBG support
And now onto the meat. In alphabetical order because it’s as good as any other order.
Build Modernization
Those who have been with the project since its early days will likely shudder at recollecting the means by which ReactOS was compiled back then. The first attempt to normalize the situation was in the RBuild system, a custom build specification format based on XML that was supposed to make it easy for developers to add new files and modules to the project. While impressive for its time, it suffered from structural issues that not only introduced very subtle bugs but also prevented the project from using anything but GCC to compile ReactOS.
The solution to this was a migration to the CMake platform, an effort that took many months and saw countless issues fixed. The first formal release using the CMake-based build system was 0.3.15 and since then the modernized build system has allowed developers to use not only GCC but also Microsoft’s compiler and debugging suite to build and test ReactOS, an ability that was crucial to many of the features and improvements listed here today.
ReactOS doesn't get as much media attention as traditional open source operating systems, mostly because it's goal is an open source Win32/WinNT clone. This is huge as a release from them, and an honorable one to remember the efforts of Brandon and Ge' van who both passed away some time back and never got to see their legacy come to such favorable fruition.
I trust sourceforge less these days than I once did, but ReactOS is worth some effort.
I am still waiting for a print spooler and CIFS drive mount support, but that is all it lacks for some of my production use.
It cannot be emphasized enough that ReactOS is where it is today due to the tireless efforts of the people that make up the project. Over the course of the project developers have come and gone but they have all left a mark whether it be in their code or the memories of their interactions with those still with the project.
Correct.
And the same goes for most opensource projects.
Since you already resurrected a 3-year old thread, where's ReactOS at nowadays? Anywhere near usable to replace Windows for running some applications that aren't available for Linux?
Correct.
And the same goes for most opensource projects.
Since you already resurrected a 3-year old thread, where's ReactOS at nowadays? Anywhere near usable to replace Windows for running some applications that aren't available for Linux?
ReactOS is currently at 0.4.13 and has been a pretty good base for running SOME Windows applications since mid release 0.3! There are still things that are not ready for prime time. The latest news is always available at https://reactos.org/. It is now benefiting from Summer Of Code progress discussed on that page.
My take is that it has been something to consider a valuable tool showing promise for a considerable time now. I do not view it as a full OS or desktop replacement. Yet. It is getting there.
Do you speak from experience? Has ReactOS been useful for you? If so, how/which apps?
Experience. I have been using ReactOS for odd things here and there since early version 3.
I have some games (DOS and early Windows games) that came on floppy or CD but installed to HD and did not require a CD, and those mostly ran fine. Sound was an issue in version 3 for me.
Nothing that required a CD worked, and I do believe that the device interface was not finished to the point of supporting that. There are still some stubs in that, but it is much better now. nothing that required mounting a remote disk or device worked on early 4, but I have not tried the same software on 0.4.13 yet.
I have some legacy business applications written for Windows NT or earlier that work perfectly. All of the applications I wrote myself in Pascal or a mixture of Pascal and Assembler work fine. Most of the things I have written in V (vlang) work out of the box. I did discover some Windows calls that must be avoided or modified, there are still functions that are stubbed in the ReactOS code. My BBS software does not handle modems correctly all of the time, but the right way to run a BBS these days is over internet anyway, and that pretty much works. If your software is partition or file system sensitive, you should be aware that file system support is still primitive in 0.3.x, barely better in 0.4.0, and suddenly got a lot better in recent releases. I have not tested everything, but there is now some NTFS and EXT support. (0.3 supported only certain FAT based formats, in general)
There used to be a database of applications that people had tried, what worked, what failed, and what worked partly but not completely, with notes, and keyed by both application version and ReactOS versions it had been tested for. Alas, that died and went away, and I have no idea who, if anyone, has that data. There is a forum (and a WIKI) linked at the ReactOS site where you can ask if anyone else has tested your application and found a way to make it work.
Really, since that database went away, an easy way to test is to fire up a ReactOS instance in VirtualBox and give your app a try. If the current release does not run it, try the daily build.
Keep in mind that even the release is alpha software, and it is still very much a work in progress. Given the objectives and roadblocks in the way, it may be alpha for a couple more years, and then Beta for a decade or two. The objectives sound deceptively simple, but the steps to achieve those goals are complex and interesting.
Both on those forums at ReactOS and here you can run into people who have used or even coded for ReactOS and know FAR more than I do. I just play with it a little, and use it to run things newer versions of windows cause to BORK. Others use it more and have far better information.
I have some games (DOS and early Windows games) that came on floppy or CD but installed to HD and did not require a CD, and those mostly ran fine.
(...)
I have some legacy business applications written for Windows NT or earlier that work perfectly.
(...)
Good news.
I should try it in a VM. May I assume that it will run significantly lighter than Windows 7/8/10?
Anyhow, thanks again.
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