Interview: Johannes Anderwald #5

by Klemens Friedl on 2006-12-12

Johannes Anderwald

Interview with Johannes Anderwald by Klemens Friedl

This is the fifth in a series of interviews with ReactOS developers. In a few weeks we will have a nice collection showcasing the talent of the people behind ReactOS.

Johannes Anderwald, born in Graz, Austria in 1983. He's been involved with ReactOS since 2004 and became a developer in 2006. Lately much of the work has been related to increase source compability with Visual Studio Development Suite.

Start

How did you get involved with ReactOS?

I was looking for project which was open-source and capable of running Windows applications and drivers. I managed to install ReactOS on an old pc and boot to the command prompt. From that moment, I got interested in ReactOS...

Did you have any Windows experience? Or did you just learn it as you needed to?

Before I found the ReactOS project, I had no experience in programming in Windows at all. My programming experience was limited to Linux. By studying ReactOS source code, I gained the required knowledge for developing Windows applications.

Fun with ReactOS

That specific area of ReactOS do you work on?

Most of work concentrates on the user-mode(dlls, applications, control panel applets) part of ReactOS. I sometimes hack into our graphic subsystem or improve the build system for greater Visual Studio compability.

What's been your best contribution to ReactOS in your opinion?

I think my best contribution so far was the automated system regression tool. (Editors note: A tool for finding regressions ReactOS boot process). Although I think I still need to work on it a bit :)

What do you like best on ReactOS?

I like the idea to have a free operating system which is compatible with Windows applications and drivers. In addition, the ReactOS community in the IRC channel is nice place to exchange opinion on implementation, bugs and all other little important things :)

Compatibility

Do you think there's any applications ReactOS needs to focus on supporting?

Everyday applications like OpenOffice / MS Office / Firefox are primarly most important. In the long run games, network application will also have an big weight.

Future

What are you plans for future projects?

I want to finish the System regression and kill a few bugs in the bugzilla database :)

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