LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

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jonaspm
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LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by jonaspm »

I found this website while searching for 'ReactOS' on Google Play:

http://luksos.jimdo.com

I still have not tried it but looks real... (there's a huge lack of screenshots but who knows...)
PurpleGurl
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by PurpleGurl »

Interesting. I don't know how much of their work can be ported back to us. Kernel changes are mentioned in the change log, but most of what has been done is change the UI. They might be able to help with translations some.
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Black_Fox
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by Black_Fox »

Interesting, someone actually went and did some changes to ROS! I'll take a look when I have time, thanks for giving the notice.
florian
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by florian »

PurpleGurl wrote:Kernel changes are mentioned in the change log, but most of what has been done is change the UI.
But only once: "ReactOS Kernel update" (Preview Version 1.1.2 released - on 31.12.2015) which just might be a synch with ReactOS. Still - as you said - interesting.
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by ctasan »

Probably they just use our kernel, without adding too much. If it's not, then it'll be great.
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Just shows that ReactOS is being taken seriously. It gives me more faith in the future of ReactOS if people are trying to build on ReactOS own success.

"ReactOS - a foundation for the future" - sounds catchy.
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Black_Fox
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by Black_Fox »

By the way, at least a few screenshots can be seen here - http://luksos.jimdo.com/hilfe/ and here https://alternativeto.net/software/luksos-grape/
Any place to get the source code?
karlexceed
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by karlexceed »

Just finished installing it into a VM...

A couple notes:
- Installation takes a bit longer than ROS, mostly due to copying third party installers (I saw Firefox and PeaZip...?)
- Installs to C:\ReactOS, installer is nearly identical
- Doesn't use the normal explorer shell...
- One major point of this distro seems to involve user accounts / profiles - But nothing works.

Now, I don't know if using the default language would make a difference, but in English the system is... unusable.

There's a host of executables loaded in that want to take over a lot of normal functions, but they don't even work as intended. There's a quick launch bar across the top of the screen that when clicked, will offer to download the corresponding program. When this happens, clicking the icon again will run the installer. Clicking again (to hopefully finally launch the program) and it runs... the installer... again. The system is also plagued by random lock-ups.

If I had to guess, there is no work being done on core ROS in this fork / distro. Looks like someone had an idea to make a locked down, simplified Windows and then only made it partway there. With some work, it could maybe do a thing, but as it stands - no fun.

The default desktop after initial install:
[ external image ]
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jonaspm
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by jonaspm »

In other words, ROS needs development if we also want to see decent distros.
PurpleGurl
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by PurpleGurl »

jonaspm wrote:In other words, ROS needs development if we also want to see decent distros.
Agreed.

I've written a number of times of wanting a fine-tuned ROS geared to a minimal range of hardware. It would make use of a number of non-standard uses of instructions, the fastest instructions for the target hardware, tightly coded assembly where it will help performance, etc. I might even go as far as hard-code some of the registry keys (but still have them in the registry for 3rd party reasons), speeding up performance, reducing disk writes, and even being a bit more secure (keys that have no reason to be changed will be hard-coded), etc. However, there are a number of problems with the idea. First, ROS itself is not that stable to where it is worth porting to any other language. Next, the modern compilers actually do much better than the older ones and produce better code. Some here keep preaching to improve the strategies used, and that is good, but in some cases, the ability to use certain strategies changes with what language you use (I can do things in assembly that I cannot do in Quick Basic, but there would be less strategy differences between C and assembly). Thirdly, it would take considerable effort with ROS-syncs to keep the ported version up to date. If you want to fork or do your own distro, if you make your code differ in any way, it is your responsibility to merge in any beneficial changes from what you modify, and if you change the programming language, then you have to port any changes from the original by hand. So it is better to wait until it is more usable until starting such. And if one has changes that can be done in C that would make things more optimized without harming compatibility or causing instability, then they should go in ROS (or even WINE) first.

But back to LuksOS Grape, it sounds like it is even worse than ReactOS. But maybe it will help raise awareness.

There was also a fork or distro from a couple of devs here who claimed to offer a version that is "more compatible" than ROS. That project seems to be dead. The rest of us surmised that the only way it could be more compatible than ROS was that it used ARWINS as the base. Maybe throw in a little POSIX to get the extra WINE code to work.

So such projects might get more interested in ROS.
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by dizt3mp3r »

"it sounds like it is even worse than ReactOS." - You can't say that as it implies ReactOS is bad. It isn't. It is in Alpha.

A distro of ReactOS is encouraging news, it may well be premature but it indicates serious interest. People see the potential in it as do I. The dev. (customiser?) may be positioning himself in the market with a good and useful site ready for the day when ReactOS becomes stable ' enough' to be the base for his distro. He could well have built it with 'real' windows originally and he's just packaging up his changes with ReactOS to be ready for future distribution, that is what I would do,

I might build a similar site for SEO purposes well in advance of any serious launch, for that reason alone it makes sense. So it does not matter that it works or not at this stage.

I think it is a very positive step regardless of the reasons behind it.
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karlexceed
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by karlexceed »

I agree that it's very promising to see ROS distros turning up already; my post above was only intended to give a quick look at what this distro was like for anyone who didn't want to bother looking into it.

I also agree that it's likely that the shell (or whatever you want to call it) developed for this distro was made in WIndows and simply copied into a ROS .iso, which means that as ROS improves, so will this. The real question now, as with any project, is how long the developer will remain committed.

I think it's also worth mentioning again that i don't believe any work on core ROS is or will be done with this distro, so the benefits of continued development only flow one way here. I highly doubt that there will be any changes from LuksOS merged upstream. This isn't necessarily bad, but it's just the way things are.
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by dizt3mp3r »

We can only encourage these sort of distros, they will act as a source of interest, a virtual source of SEO optimisation for ReactOS and could generate real interest and eventually coding input if enough have the same idea.

I have an idea for a ReactOS distro/bundling myself which I am tinkering with - but at the moment I have other things to do and in any case my contribution cannot benefit core ReactOS.
Skillset: VMS,DOS,Windows Sysadmin from 1985, fault-tolerance, VaxCluster, Alpha,Sparc. DCL,QB,VBDOS- VB6,.NET, PHP,NODE.JS, Graphic Design, Project Manager, CMS, Quad Electronics. classic cars & m'bikes. Artist in water & oils. Historian.
PurpleGurl
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Re: LuksOS - ReactOS distribution

Post by PurpleGurl »

karlexceed wrote:I agree that it's very promising to see ROS distros turning up already; my post above was only intended to give a quick look at what this distro was like for anyone who didn't want to bother looking into it.

I also agree that it's likely that the shell (or whatever you want to call it) developed for this distro was made in WIndows and simply copied into a ROS .iso, which means that as ROS improves, so will this. The real question now, as with any project, is how long the developer will remain committed.

I think it's also worth mentioning again that i don't believe any work on core ROS is or will be done with this distro, so the benefits of continued development only flow one way here. I highly doubt that there will be any changes from LuksOS merged upstream. This isn't necessarily bad, but it's just the way things are.
Good points. If its shell or user UI were made in Windows, then yes, improving our compatibility with Windows would fix a lot of the problem with it. But then again, maybe they introduced their own bugs.

Yes, it is likely a one-way effort. Like you said, I don't think they will be adding anything that will be of use to us, though maybe they might help with translation. But whether the strings will benefit only them is yet to be seen. Now they might also send interested parties our way.

I remember an experiment someone did with the WRK. They made a Windows distro with emulator game support. They added a game emulator to HAL. So if the user double clicks on the ROMs, it would load them using the emulator code and they would be playable. While that was a good experiment, unfortunately, the devs of that won't be able to help us at all. They are tainted.

That brings us up to another distro problem. What if any of the other projects that use ROS as a base have tainted devs or use tainted code? Then we'd have to be careful what comes upstream.
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