Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

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Quim
Posts: 257
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Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by Quim »

I found this curious video:
What if Microsoft adopted the Open Source Windows clone, ReactOS?
If Microsoft started a 10 year plan to migrate Windows users to ReactOS and discontinue Windows, what do you think the general outcome would be in the end?
-Justin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2440KK3mdk

Could this make sense or it just a hoax?
karlexceed
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by karlexceed »

It makes no sense, but it's not a "hoax" either. Just some people talking about a silly hypothetical question.
tomleem
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by tomleem »

It is probably just two guys thinking 'what if? type of thing.
:geek:

While watching that, I cam across this video.
'Trying Windows XP Themes on ReactOS'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITOWkAqwcmk
:ugeek:
I also found this.
ReactOS: Free Windows Alternative
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne88Is2cymQ
:ugeek:
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Tom Lee M / BigGoofyGuy
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Ancient
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by Ancient »

The future for Windows will not be as a server, Linux has that covered. It will be for office productivity, casual home users, and video game enthusiasts.

To stay dominant in the office and at home, Microsoft must create a RISC capable version of Desktop Windows 10. It must create RISC capable versions of most software it provides, and it must encourage developers to work on a RISC system. Most likely stuff like Raspberry Pi through Snapdragon phones.

The goal would be to use a phone as a wireless HDMI and wireless mouse / keyboard interface at in an office or home workstation. Allowing users to port the phone with them. Likely to get more applications moved to ARM, Microsoft will provide some X86 emulation. The degraded performance if affecting only some parts of some applications may not be too noticeable.

A non-desktop version of Windows 10 basic system is already free for a Raspberry Pi. The first Microsoft Windows attempts at RT and Snapdragon were failures. Microsoft will determine what they did wrong, and fix it.

Currently the Windows shell and many applications are not consistent on Windows 10, they need to be harmonized and a cell phone must power Windows 10 sufficiently for Word, and other applications to run reasonably well on a 4 GB Snapdragon ARM system.

If Windows does not migrate to the native ARM phone, tablet, and other primitive device markets, it will die. As Google will advance Android onto PC platforms. A ubiquitous Android will have great appeal, at the moment everything is going to the cloud, various limitations imposed by Google are limiting it's penetration of the PC (X86) market at this time.

Servers will be Linux, Mac will be Unix, Android and Windows will be fighting for universal dominance across iterations of ARM / RISC / Snapdragon / X86 for some time to come.

Try insalling Pcloud on ReactOS. Then compare to it's function on Windows, Mac IOS, Android and Windows phone. Pcloud is not biased toward any operating system provider, but 2 terabytes of space is available for a one time lifetime fee of $375. Cloud storage with shared devices managed by 3rd parties as if they were local drives is in our future. Android and Windows 10 running on everything are also in our future.

It is possible today with cable Internet from Comcast to launch video games such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, and any Steam game (including Steam) from a Pcloud drive. Pcloud offers it's own driver. Storage is treated as local and a local cache size is established (usually 2-5 GB). This is enough to run most stuff. A shared folder which keeps a cloud mirror is also possible and can mirror the same programs and data across many devices.

I can launch an image of ReactOS from PCloud using a virtual machine whose software is also in the cloud. So only a local 5 GB cache is used. Where local storage will be used, it will be on SD cards and SSD drives. SD cards for Windows ARM and SSD for Windows desktop X86. File system and drive size will matter less. I could probably set up a 200 GB drive for ReactOS and run a cloud based Virtual machine without significant impairment. Since Pcloud (and it doesn't have to be Pcloud it can be any of many alternatives) provides the file system driver, why can't it be installed in ROS?

If Microsoft fails to adapt, Windows itself may die, or it's market share may become much smaller than today. This will leave us in an Android world, with lots of nice sealed binary non-open source essential components, referred to as blobs by some, to make Android and Chrome work. Not a pretty future for anyone but Google.

Is the purpose of ReactOS to offer an alternative to Windows? If so, don't sweat the file system, get 64 bit working, because even on a mid range Snapdragon it'll be 64 bit. For people to adopt, get USB boot working. The WSJ build an $80 Snapdragon custom phone in China about a year ago, a video is up for it. Send someone to China and see how easy it is to get a Snapdragon, screen, and whatever interfaces you want on a less than $200 phone. When ReactOS started, X86 and NTFS may have been important, the market has evolved and is evolving. Will ReactOS evolve it's target to meet the future?

If so, USB boot, cloud storage, 64 bit, multi core by the dozen, X86 and ARM / Snapdragon may be part of the eventual solution.
anthracen
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by anthracen »

oh, look, yet another "specialist". from kindergarten. :lol:

this project needs NOT BS-consultants. it needs people that are able and want to implement lacking functionaluity and improve what has been implemented.
Ancient
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by Ancient »

Windows 10 Snapdragon from 2016 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_GlGglbu1U note 64 bit. Note Adobe Photoshop is also demonstrated. 7Zip running on Windows 10 Snapdragon 64 bit 2017 - https://youtu.be/oSXUDKpkbx4?t=307 something ROS has difficulty with IIRC. Windows 10 2018 conference for building on ARM / Snapdragon - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdYIaUeZnqc from Microsoft Developer youtube site.

Microsoft knows where Windows is going. It isn't going 32 bit, it isn't worried about cloud or file system type, it IS worried about RISC / ARM / Snapdragon and is developing for it. This was from May 9. 2018. So ROS can't launch reliably 32 bit 7 Zip, and Microsoft can launch it on an ARM at 64 bit. Please tell me who is in Kindergarten again?

New surface pro's will once again be released using ARM, but will be Snapdragon system on chip.

Without USB boot, ROS will not be tried by the vast majority of users, it may come as a surprise but CD and DVD's are slowly dying. Many new systems do not include a CD / DVD. ROS burnable disc's are increasingly not useful to the majority of potential users. Your base for crowd source funding would like to try ROS. Multi Core is a necessity, as is 64 bit memory management. Snapdragon is evolving into 6 then 8 GB system on chip as there will be demand for this. Note 6 and 8 GB Snapdragon implementations already exist for Android cell phones, search snapdragon 6gb ram or snapdragon 8gb ram. These aren't hypothetical. The Galaxy Note 8 has 6 GB of RAM and is 64 bit - https://www.androidauthority.com/best-p ... am-801953/ a phone branded as One Plus 5T has an 8 GB RAM Snapdragon. We could toddle down to China, and order a Snapdragon phone with 16 or 32 GB of RAM and 128 or 2 TB of storage. Currently only Android will fully exploit these phones. Linux hasn't really embraced Snapdragon and cell phones, Apple has but in a restricted form, and Microsoft is trying.

WSJ builds a custom Snapdragon / Android phone for $80 in China with logo included - https://youtu.be/l65Go_x6Rk4 if you want an 8 GB phone, expect to pay about $90-$110 for the Snapdragon and add whatever you want around it (screen, camera, speakers, microphone, wireless 4K or 8K HDMI etc). For under $300 a 7" 16 GB 64 bit Snapdragon with 8 hours of run time could be loved by many and will be soon. Google will run it today, Apple could run it, but won't. Microsoft will run it in the future. This is where the market is going.

Microsoft is evil, Google is evil, Apple is evil, ROS is good. I mean that, and feel it, ROS is open source, and is built by a well meaning community. User habits are changing, the market is changing. 32 bit NT isn't a sustainable goal unless it can quickly allow for 64 bit. ROS must consider first ARM then Snapdragon after mastering AMD x86 64 bit multicore.

At the same time Microsoft and Google have lots of resources, more developers are taking a leak at either company at any time than there are active developers working on ROS. You can't compete if people can't try your product, if it can't use all RAM, if it can't use all CPU's. Yet lets work on NTFS, THAT is important (NOT). Install a Pcloud drive on any Windows system you own, it will come up as EX FAT. Nobody cares about NTFS other than to read existing files when migrating.
karlexceed
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by karlexceed »

ROS's USB boot support is getting closer every day. Hopefully soon, VGal's patches will be merged and we can all start testing.

It seems to me like you're imagining ROS is trying to be the next top-tier OS. It's not. ROS's current goal is still to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP / Server 2003. After that, I'm sure the target will change to Vista, and then 7.

When real hardware support really gets going, it's going to start with the hardware that was designed for use with Windows XP.

There's no immediate incentive for ROS to go 64 bit. Nor to support multi-core CPUs. Yes, these features will be coming, but contrary to your opinion, having a stable and compatible NTFS filesystem driver is MUCH more important.

ROS's target market is not the same as Microsoft or Google's.
middings
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by middings »

I don't know how rocket scientists build rockets but rocket engineers know that to build a big rocket that works, start with a small rocket that works.

At present, the ReactOS Project's design target of compatibility with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 32-bit and single-core CPU implementation is intended to be that small rocket that works. I agree with karlexceed, stability and compatibility are the most important goals at this time. I look forward to ReactOS achieving the minimum viable product state.
MadWolf
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Re: Microsoft plan to migrate to ReactOS?

Post by MadWolf »

hi
getting windows or reactos to run on ARM is an interesting idea but imho pointless for me i am a pc gamer i like playing a lot of old game from the 90's some of the games have engine remakes or the game engine has been made open source

at the moment x86 to arm is still in early development stages but for speed it is better to compile the code for arm but now you have the chicken and egg the average consumer is not going to buy the devises if they can not run the software they want to run and developers are not going to support the platform if there is no user base

Android as a desktop OS that makes sense on a touch enabled devices but not for a standard desktop

and the direction Microsoft is taking windows 10 has annoyed a lot of users I have not downgraded to windows 10 i am running windows 8.1 modified so i do not have to deal withe the metro apps
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