Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

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bobmichegan
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Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by bobmichegan »

Hello,
I have been using Reactos in my virtual machine for a while now, through the versions 0.4.7-0.4.10.
while there are no big changes i see the developers don't lose hope (while in their wiki website you can see plenty of developers who left)

if they really think Reactos has any future why other companies who uses linux which is known not to work well with windows apps like google (who owns chromeOS) and steam (steamOS) don't contribute to Reactos?
karlexceed
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by karlexceed »

bobmichegan wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:06 pm for a while now, through the versions 0.4.7-0.4.10.
0.4.7 was released December 6th, 2017. 10 months ago.
bobmichegan wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:06 pm there are no big changes
https://www.reactos.org/project-news/re ... 8-released
209 new Pull Requests and 1094 commits made it into the 0.4.8 version.
https://www.reactos.org/project-news/re ... 9-released
109 new Pull Requests and 922 commits made it into the 0.4.9 version.
bobmichegan wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:06 pm plenty of developers who left
Over the course of the 22+ years the project has been ongoing...
bobmichegan wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:06 pm why other companies who uses linux which is known not to work well with windows apps like google (who owns chromeOS) and steam (steamOS) don't contribute to Reactos?
Both chromeOS and steamOS are Linux. They're not concerned with working with Windows programs at all. Plus I'm not sure why a company with the resources to write their own OS would instead give money to ROS.

The organizations that I could see supporting ROS are more like those that have to support older hardware. There are plenty of CNC / automated manufacturing machines that still run off of XP-based controllers.
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Because they can't see the future and don't know whether ReactOS will be popular or not/finished or not. That's the commercial world for you. There are also alternatives and one of them is called Windows and it works.

I think your real question might be more along the lines of "what is ReactOS for?" as your question"Does Reactos have a future?" implies your own lack of faith - Of course it has a future. It is open source, whilst there are contributors then it has a future.

To restore your faith look at my list of possible uses of ReactOS: https://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic ... 68#p123529 then sit back and wait... or contribute.
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MadWolf
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by MadWolf »

hi
in the latest steam beta Linux valve have created Steam Play that uses an open source project named Proton a forked version of wine
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/
https://steamcommunity.com/games/221410 ... 5739350561
So, two years ago, we started an effort to improve the quality and performance of Windows compatibility solutions for Steam games. A lot of our work has been in the form of supporting Wine[www.winehq.org] and other existing compatibility projects. We have also been integrating these tools into the Steam client to provide the same simple plug-and-play experience offered by regular Linux games.
indirectly valve supporting Wine helps the reactos project
shunesburg
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by shunesburg »

MadWolf wrote: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:34 pm indirectly valve supporting Wine helps the reactos project
This is the main force of open source software.
KainKelly
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by KainKelly »

bobmichegan wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 6:06 pm Hello,
I have been using Reactos in my virtual machine for a while now, through the versions 0.4.7-0.4.10.
while there are no big changes i see the developers don't lose hope (while in their wiki website you can see plenty of developers who left)

if they really think Reactos has any future why other companies who uses linux which is known not to work well with windows apps like google (who owns chromeOS) and steam (steamOS) don't contribute to Reactos?
It's a open source project, between the politics going on with lunix, windows hording ram, and osx being ran by apple, reactos WILL be a viable alternative to them in time. Imho the only thing holding this project back is the lack of 64bit support. After that becomes viable, I expect this to really take off. Namely in applications like gaming where you want your OS eating up as little power as possible.
PurpleGurl
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by PurpleGurl »

Not just the x64 thing holding us back, but lack of multi-core support. I think some of it exists but more needs to be done in HAL.
KainKelly
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by KainKelly »

PurpleGurl wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:30 am Not just the x64 thing holding us back, but lack of multi-core support. I think some of it exists but more needs to be done in HAL.
Didn't know that was missing, what about multi processor support as well?
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binarymaster
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by binarymaster »

KainKelly wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:57 pm Didn't know that was missing, what about multi processor support as well?
At the kernel level this is the same as multi-core.
KainKelly
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by KainKelly »

binarymaster wrote: Fri Oct 19, 2018 12:09 am
KainKelly wrote: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:57 pm Didn't know that was missing, what about multi processor support as well?
At the kernel level this is the same as multi-core.
What needs to be done to implement it?
PurpleGurl
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by PurpleGurl »

No. It is that they don't have the data. Security isn't the holdup. It is a matter of coding first and then reexamining for vulnerabilities. But you cannot code if you lack the technical data needed to know what to code and why.
shunesburg
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by shunesburg »

The real problem with ReactOS is the compatibility of the drivers.
PurpleGurl
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Re: Does Reactos have a future? if so why there are no Companies/businesses working with Reactos

Post by PurpleGurl »

And again, that goes back to the kernel (same for multi-core) and real hardware compatibility. If you think of HAL as the "master platform driver" that connects to other drivers, then you can see how if it is messed up, then likely other intrinsic and 3rd-party drivers won't work.

And yet again, that is all due to not having the technical specs. The developers can only write what they have technical data or existing open source code for. Otherwise, you are left to guesswork. And it isn't like writing code for user space where you can take more liberties, use more guesswork, and write more extensive tests to suss out what Windows does.

What it might take is for someone with no interest in coding for ROS to be willing to do clean room disassembly and write loose documentation (no specifics) of what goes on in the sister OS's kernel and core platform drivers. Then they can pass their findings to an attorney, with the attorney redacting whatever is necessary, and then the attorney/liaison can contact the foundation with the sanitized documentation.
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