How is ReactOS Going to Stay Relevant?

[MugenFighter]

I'm curious if there are plans for ReactOS to stay Relevant enough to keep the man power and interest to finish its goals? Its just that I have seen long lasting projects that have had a lot of promise, man power, progress, and interest die. Anyway not trying to insult the project.

[dizt3mp3r]

It stays relevant to potential users by by becoming more and more stable as time progresses. It is getting there.

Also, having Microsoft there to screw up it's own best product on a regular basis is always useful, though it can't be relied upon.

ReactOS is relevant in many ways and for many uses just as per the actual Windows it will be compatible with. It just has a long path to get to that state for each and every user. Some may well be made happy quite soon when ReactOS becomes usable for them.

[MugenFighter]

It stays relevant to potential users by by becoming more and more stable as time progresses. It is getting there.

Also, having Microsoft there to screw up it's own best product on a regular basis is always useful, though it can't be relied upon.

ReactOS is relevant in many ways and for many uses just as per the actual Windows it will be compatible with. It just has a long path to get to that state for each and every user. Some may well be made happy quite soon when ReactOS becomes usable for them.

That is what I like to hear.

[PurpleGurl]

Plus there is plenty of compatible software out there. While support is dying for older software, most of it will still work. Also, as we become more viable, we can talk some developers into continuing their support, since they would have a venue for an XP or 2003 version of their product. I know at least one has done so. They might call it a "ReactOS version," but it is really just them continuing with their XP/2003 version. Yes, some of that is just semantics, since software devs were asked (by Microsoft) not to support older versions of Windows, so they might claim to be supporting us instead.

[MugenFighter]

Plus there is plenty of compatible software out there. While support is dying for older software, most of it will still work. Also, as we become more viable, we can talk some developers into continuing their support, since they would have a venue for an XP or 2003 version of their product. I know at least one has done so. They might call it a "ReactOS version," but it is really just them continuing with their XP/2003 version. Yes, some of that is just semantics, since software devs were asked (by Microsoft) not to support older versions of Windows, so they might claim to be supporting us instead.

I can see that working. It shouldn't be too hard to develop for ReactOS and as it grows and become more stable developers may want to have their software work for it, and if it works trying to have them develop for Windows XP/2003 or ReactOS shouldn't be too hard. In addition to that ReactOS can be used as a retro operating system should one choose to use it that way. I could see full distros designed for one, the other, or even both in the future. Even developers who haven't developed for the XP/2003 can learn from the many resources available online and in print. On a side note one thing I'd like to mention is that I love the NTVDM, it means if someone wanted to make a program for DOS because he or she loved DOS, was curious about how DOS programming worked, or whatever ReactOS has a good chance to run it, and if that fails DOSBox and other emulators does work too.

[erkinalp]

The most importantly, it is supported by Russian government.

[hbelusca]

The most importantly, it is supported by Russian government.

Well, I would not say "supported". It was just selected AND appeared in 2nd rank after another OS which IS supported already by the Russian government, i.e. ALT Linux. See http://www.reactos.org/node/946 .

[MugenFighter]

The most importantly, it is supported by Russian government.

Well, I would not say "supported". It was just selected AND appeared in 2nd rank after another OS which IS supported already by the Russian government, i.e. ALT Linux. See http://www.reactos.org/node/946 .

Isn't it used as a educational tool somewhere though? That would be a pretty good thing in terms of getting it known.

[PurpleGurl]

Isn't it used as a educational tool somewhere though? That would be a pretty good thing in terms of getting it known.

Yes, it is being used in some colleges to help understand Windows internals. In fact, Alexy Bragin (Fireball) teaches a class and uses ROS as part of the materials.

[KnownSyntax]

Not only that, but it's a good starting point for those who want to fully understand the current mechanics on how Windows is what it is today. Since it's hard to go through previous version of Windows in a class, play around what the files, etc. without having to either A; torrent it, B; illegally distribute it, or C; risk damaging an old computer that is running such version of Windows.

It would help more if people knew about this project now, since everyone seems to be staying with Widows 7 or later due to the "spying" features that Windows 10 has enabled in it's core (with no option to turn it off).

[Konata]

It would help more if people knew about this project now, since everyone seems to be staying with Widows 7 or later due to the "spying" features that Windows 10 has enabled in it's core (with no option to turn it off).

FUD. Those "spying features" are in Windows XP and up. It's the metadata that gets sent to Microsoft after an application crashes, and it's anonymous. The keylogger and other things exclusive to 10 can be turned off and do stay off.

[PurpleGurl]

And what about the "kill switch" in 8 and higher? I disagree with that. They get an idea that you have certain pirated apps on your PC, so it goes into repair mode and deletes all your programs but the ones from Microsoft. And worse, it can get accidentally triggered -- and I've seen it in action on a neighbor's machine. They might have made it less likely to get false alarms in 8.1, but I don't like the idea of a backdoor to delete everything you have because of copyright, political correctness, "your own good," or whatever else you can name. I know what Microsoft says, that it is only for their own software you get from the app store, but in 8.0 at least, it seemed overzealous. Now, if it truly was intended to be benign, then why not a prompt such as, "Windows has detected possible corruption or problems which may impair booting this PC, do you wish to repair this (all customizations and software installations will be lost)?"

[dizt3mp3r]

Reactos can stay relevant by running software that Microsoft makes obsolete overnight by removing essential components from the o/s.

I have just upgraded my main laptop from Win8 (what it came with) to Windows 10. I now have a problem with Adobe Photoshop CS ver 8.0, the original Photoshop. It still loads quickly and runs well but it has one bug that causes a crash repeatedly. If you create any layer with a circular edge and try to fill it with a colour then it causes the program to crash and die losing all your recent changes. The program worked well on Vista, Windows 7 and XP (I never tried it on Windows 8 as Windows 8 was utter rubbish). Apart from that rather critical fault the program works and I still use it regularly but now I have to fill rectangular layers and sculpt the edges to curves instead.

A few of my old standard games no longer run though they install OK. Rome Total War, Medieval Total War, Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds PC game - none of these games (that I paid a lot of money for once upon a time) now work under Windows 10 as the essential DRM components that are required to make them work are no longer bundled or function within Windows 10. Still working on solutions for these.

My Logitech MX600 mouse drivers do not install, the mouse still works though it is crippled compared to its multi-functionality under XP.
I have a damn good reason to keep XP now and if ReactOS ever takes XPs place in the pantheon of good operating systems then I will dump my insecure XP system and use ReactOS instead. Hopefully, I will be able to fix some of these issues in ReactOS and then I may be able to use the software that I paid for once again!

[hbelusca]

The only potential problem I see in this beautiful picture concerns the games that needs high requirements related to Direct-X , since we don't have any serious directX support in ROS and nobody only dedicated to that is going to work on it soon so far.

[dizt3mp3r]

One day... For the moment XP stays.