ReactOS Project decision?

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coryhenrique
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ReactOS Project decision?

Post by coryhenrique »

I have a doubt about the ReactOS Project. The purpose of this is to reach the level of compatibility XP/2003, but Windows XP is losing compatibility to Windows 7.
What they plan to do about it?
ReactOS will continue as is or will change the goal for Windows 7 compatibility?


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DOSGuy
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by DOSGuy »

I've never yet seen a project with an unchangeable goal.

At any rate, Windows XP, 2003, 7 and 8 are all Windows NT operating systems, and that's what ReactOS is trying to be compatible with. It's a bit like saying that we're trying to make muffins, and then someone says "but people don't eat plain muffins any more; chocolate chip muffins are the standard now". If we ever get the muffins tasting right, we can work on adding chocolate chips or whatever new-fangled things have been added to muffins since the last version.
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by jorge1987 »

DOSGuy wrote: It's a bit like saying that we're trying to make muffins, and then someone says "but people don't eat plain muffins any more; chocolate chip muffins are the standard now". If we ever get the muffins tasting right, we can work on adding chocolate chips or whatever new-fangled things have been added to muffins since the last version.
And that's really a good analogy. ;)
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PurpleGurl
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by PurpleGurl »

And what about the classical users who are allergic to chocolate chips? ;-) But yes, we'd probably need to upgrade our goals at some point. But once we reach a development freeze on the 2003 compatible code, we should hang onto it and keep the binaries. Then those who like that code can use it (hey, some are still using DOS, 95, 98, and 2000), and we can continue towards new goals.
SomeGuy
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by SomeGuy »

The "2003" goal is mainly there to keep developers from going off in different directions.

At the moment "2003" is still a reasonable goal form a technical standpoint. Keep in mind that not incredibly much has changed underneath the hood in recent versions of Windows (they just change the UI around and everyone thinks it is totally new).
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jonaspm
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by jonaspm »

I should recommend to jump Vista and go on Windows 7, pretty the same but with more bugfixes
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Pesho
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by Pesho »

I don't see that much of a difference between XP and 7... The Win32 subsystem is the same and applications for Win7 work fine on XP with some rare exceptions. The major changes i see are some fancy UI theme stuff, DX10 and basic support for tablets and touchscreen devices (like having tablet edition by default). But as far as kernel goes, it should go beyond 6.x when the time is right.
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EmuandCo
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by EmuandCo »

you should verity your claims before you post. windows 7 is way more than a nice gui for xp.... the list would be verrrrrry long.
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

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Aeneas
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by Aeneas »

I'd say, you might have to consider, what CAN ReactOS do AT ALL?

There is a limit to everything... In particular, to "resources over time". You can say that you can "mutate" x lines of code per year and developer maximum (delete, add or change). Now, whatever can be expressed by that count of lines, multiplied by the count of developers, is actually what you CAN do. If you say, you need to mutate e.g. 1 Mio LoC (as problematic as that measure may be), you might safely say, you cannot do this with 30 people. On the other hand, if you have to change 100000 LoC, you may have a chance with 30 people, and 10000 LoC should really be feasible.

I believe whatever decision ReactOS meets with regard to its direction, it cannot entirely ignore such considerations. I think it is clear to everyone that with 30 people, you cannot become FULLY compatible to Windows, though you CAN achieve one or the other remarkable feat.

@EmuandCo: I actually sent you a PM yesterday evening (in this forum system), I hope you got it. :)
andreas84
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by andreas84 »

Aeneas wrote: you cannot become FULLY compatible to Windows, though you CAN achieve one or the other remarkable feat.
who want to test EVERY game that was ever written for wind)ows? and find out if it is 100% compatible and who want to search the very last bug?

the limit is reached when somethingl no one ever used works on winxp but not on ros : no one ever notice that it is not compatible or that there is a bug.
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EmuandCo
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by EmuandCo »

yes, i got it. Answer will follow at home
ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
Aeneas
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by Aeneas »

@EmuandCo: Thank you, seems like vicmarcal & fireball saw it already, too.

@andreas84: "the limit is reached when somethingl no one ever used works on winxp but not on ros" - yupp, I precisely agree. In particular, I would even extend it - even if things do not work, for which there exist "good enough replacements", we are totally in the game (though unfortunately, not yet); in particular, printing would be very nice...
andreas84
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by andreas84 »

nope here i dont agree. that should be fixed: if the bug is minor it should be easy to fix, if the bug is major it might later affect other programs aswell. the only think i could imagine would be when someone of the programmer hacked windows to make something working. Then ros should not do the same if the program is not needet.
coldbear1
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by coldbear1 »

I think the problem people forget is that ReactOS is opensource and what that means. Generally speaking it means as long as there are people whom are interested in continuing the project there will be life in it. It's not going to die simply because some people may walk away (although it may slow down... considerably even). The other side effect, when the time is right, and ROS matures to the level of Beta or Post-Beta people will fork in those preferences. In respects to minor things this will result in lots of side projects and in major cases different mods or distrobutions of ROS ... just like in Linux. All this will result in a highly active and well developed code base which will probably supercede Windows in the long run. This is similiar to the effect Linux has had on the world of POSIX, where now all the things Linux used to have to adhere to it is now setting the standard for.

So sit back and enjoy the ride. I think ROS should stay it's current course while leaning compatibility towards 2003. Not too much but just enough to give ROS the edge over XP. When it matures enough we can talk about future desktop/GUI capabilities such as Win Vista/7/8.
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Re: ReactOS Project decision?

Post by Yaraslau »

Pesho wrote:I don't see that much of a difference between XP and 7...
If you just typing in Word - yes, you don't see differences. :) If any at all.
Pesho wrote:The major changes i see are some fancy UI theme stuff, DX10 and basic support for tablets and touchscreen devices
The main difference between Reactos and Windos 7 - 64 bit support. It's hard to implement, so... It's better to reach Windows 2003 compatibily in 32 bit. This is a reasonable goal, I believe.
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