how to rip ReactOS to Ourway.

[cristal_4_u]

Hi can somone tell me how to make the react os to ourway. i mean if i want to get rid of the start menu and icons. or if i want the react os to have my own name on it when it boots. After it boots i dont want it to goto the desktop. instead of that i want it to show something else. how do i do those. is it possible?.

[Wierd]

The icons and graphics are stored as ICO resources in the source tree. You can change those there.

Where to change the boot logo, I don't know, but no matter what you put, prudence implies that you will make note of the original software's authors, and give them their due credit--- So, if you do a fork, at least have a prominently displayed notation that "XXX is based on Reactos, www.reactos.org" The boot logo is a wonderful place for that. I am going out on a limb here, but I would expect that Bootvid.sys has a graphical resource that contains the displayed image, which should be alterable.

*EDIT*

Yes, the image displayed by Bootvid.sys is stored in the Bootvid folder, in /drivers/base/bootvid. There is a bitmap called "Bootimage.bmp" which is a 16 color bitmap. Replace this file to change the image displayed by bootvid.sys.

The default shell will eventually be configurable in the registry, same as windows, but not just yet. The ReactOS developers are still busy dealing with stability and core functionality issues, and the default shell issue seems rather trivial.

Workaround: You can rename your new shell's EXE file to be EXPLORER.EXE, and it will load as the shell. Granted, I dont know of any functional 3rd party shellspaces that work with ReactOS yet.

Bear in mind however, that while the ROS devs have no problems with people using their code as long as proper credits are given, they DO discourage the idea of "Distros" of reactos.

[Matthias]

Wierd, ReactOS is licensed under the GPL. That means that anybody can take the source code and do whatever he likes with it as long as he respects the GPL. It is everyone's right to make distributions of ReactOS and it is everyones right to use its Source Code without mentioning the original developers, because unlike earlier BSD-style licences the GPL doesn't have an advertising clause. Please don't spread your optinions about what people should and shouldn't do with ReactOS' Source code. As long as they respect the GPL, that's none of your business.

[Wierd]

I am well aware of the license Mathias.

I am also aware of the developer's personal views about "distros" for reactos.

Also, ReactOS is still a copyrighted work. It just is not patented, and you have unlimited alteration and redistribution rights. That does not mean you can remove any
Copyright XXXX ReactOS team" or "Copyright XXXX SomeDev" messages, wherever they may be found. That would be a violation of US copyright law.

Please do not attempt to educate somebody who allready fully understands the topic, as it comes off condescending and rude.

That said--

I did not say they could not do it. If I said that, why would I give them an answer to their questions? I was simply passing on the personal views I know several key developers have.

Please, Control yourself.

[Matthias]

You only have to leave Copyright notices inside the source files, not anywhere else...

[oiaohm]

Becareful a lot of Copyright notices in headers and the likely are not the complete licence. Only a copy left. Other cases are refences to file containing licence. Both still legally valid.

If you change a file that contains the licence that other files refers to is still a breach of copyright if the licence did not allow the changes.

Copyright law has to be obeyed.

Note Copyright law is not hard to obey. Some thing you have to be careful with.

[Sarocet]

Matthias you're going on a dangerous way. Yes, it is possible to modify it and show other name, etc. But the file notices (and the license copy) MUST be preserved. And you MUST provide all those files and also your changes, to whoever ask you for it when you give him your ReactOS.

[Stead]

just out of curosity why would you want to do this?

[crowmag]

just out of curosity why would you want to do this?

Just for a hypothetical example, say a group of Mac enthusiasts got together and bundled a bunch of apps, alt-shell and hacked Dll's etc with ROS. to create a distro that emulated the Mac OSX look and feel right out of the box and call it ROX...

RKDE - Rgnome - RBe - RQNX - AmigR

Sort of along the lines of: Ubuntu - Kubuntu - Xubuntu - Edubuntu - Nubuntu.

[SHUTZ]

No. I think ReactOS must keep his integrity, in other words, i'm tired of all of those linux distributions, thousands of them where every developer involved in the project modify a source code as he thinks of how linux os should be - it doesn't mean that those versions is far (in the good way) from the original.. actually, most of them sux. At least in my case.
I think everybody needs to focus their attention on a single version of ReactOS... ("brainstorming") that's the best thing for the future of the project - development - improvements, updates, bug fixes, more stability in comparision with what it means to have hundreds of alternatives to work on... ReactOS must not share Linux's fate. You'd better modify your license policy..

[Matthias]

SHUTZ, don't talk about things you don't understand. The BSD License is far less restrictive than the GPL, but still there are no OpenBSD or NetBSD distributions. The fact that there are so many Linux distribtutions has absolutely nothing to do with it's license. The true reason is that Linux, unlike ReactOS or NetBSD, is only a kernel, the latter being more (NetBSD) or less (ReactOS) complete OSes. The GNU utilities (cp, mv, ls, cat etc.) are also not bound to one OS, while the NetBSD versions of those utilities don't really exist outside of the NetBSD core system.

[SHUTZ]

Thanks for reply, i got your point.. I've seen people talking about how to make a custom ReactOS and this is why i'm talking about linux's destiny.. thought i understand that it is not a good refference...
Anyway, KEEP REACTOS ALIVE. I believe in this project... like so many of you..