ReactOS is a rather interesting open-source project that is considered by many to be a direct and free drop-in replacement for Windows, especially if you don’t want to be locked in to Microsoft’s proprietary ecosystem. One of its goals is to allow customers to run Windows apps and drivers in an open-source environment (reminiscent of Windows XP) that they can trust, and it has made many advancements in this regard. It supports Microsoft’s FAT file system, Registry caching, native .zip handling, and is even capable of running Microsoft’s iconic Hover! in fullscreen. Now, the project is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
Does anyone here actually use it? Are there any obvious benefits in practice to ReactOS over Linux with Wine?
It’s a fun project, but I struggle to wrap my head around any real world usefulness.
I’ve toyed with it in the past but never had a need for it that Wine couldn’t fill, however I’ve heard of people using it for industrial or lab apps that require old windows versions. They also collaborate with Wine since they are solving a lot of the same problems.
That makes a lot of sense! I have heard Windows XP is still being run in hospitals and stuff out of necessity due to compatibility issues with expensive equipment, ReactOS might be a great solution for making that a little less sketchy while keeping it simple.
Depending on the situation there may be even older hardware/windows in use.
At my last job there was a windows 2000 computer still in use until like 2 years ago. None of the motherboard connections were still being made anymore. None of the drivers for the specialized devices existed for anything newer. The computer was air gapped and a replacement machine was commissioned, but it was still there doing its thing until the HDD failed.
It’s not really suitable for production use yet. I ran it in a VM a few days ago, got a BSoD within a few minutes just from doing completely normal things.
As the other comment said, the main usefulness is the fact that there is already a lot of Windows-only software out there and it’s useful to have a way to run all of it on a FOSS operating system, even if Wine is for one reason or another not an option.
It’s not really suitable for production use yet. I ran it in a VM a few days ago, got a BSoD within a few minutes just from doing completely normal things.
Woha, careful there, we’re on a forum full of Linux nerds and the joke writes itself.
But yeah, I guess that takes me back to my inital confusion - one would think a minimalistic Linux install with Wine would always perform better, if nothing else because there are a lot of people actively using and contributing to that software stack. But maybe sometimes there are advantages of having the software integrated directly in the system that Wine as a non-emulator on Linux cannot deliver.
The main selling point is that it aims to support Windows device drivers.
Right! Man, I’m slow today. But that makes sense, sometimes to operate some old expensive piece of equipment you’ll need both the software and the driver. Thanks for spoon feeding me haha.
Such a cool project, I don’t have a use for it but I’ve heard of people using it for industrial or lab applications that require ancient versions of windows.
I might install it just for Hover!
