Distros

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Icedragondee
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Distros

Post by Icedragondee »

Hi, new to the forum.

I've been a casual follower of the ReactOS project for a few years at this point, interested in how the project will turn out and stuff.

I am wondering about - when it's in a useable-as-a-daily-driver state if you'd be open to different distributions of ROS like what there is for Linux and what have you. I'm not a programmer by any means, but I would still like to hear the thoughts and opinions on this sort of stuff regardless.

Again, really excited about the way this OS is turning out (and what it very well may become)
nicamarvin2005
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Re: Distros

Post by nicamarvin2005 »

Icedragondee wrote: Sat Nov 20, 2021 8:47 am Hi, new to the forum.

I've been a casual follower of the ReactOS project for a few years at this point, interested in how the project will turn out and stuff.

I am wondering about - when it's in a useable-as-a-daily-driver state if you'd be open to different distributions of ROS like what there is for Linux and what have you. I'm not a programmer by any means, but I would still like to hear the thoughts and opinions on this sort of stuff regardless.

Again, really excited about the way this OS is turning out (and what it very well may become)
1. It's been and it will be a very long road to get from Alpha to Beta.
2. As mentioned before it's on beta so it's not a daily driver.
3. There was a group of us about 10 years ago that were thinking of Forking ReactOS from the ARWINSS or YAROTOWS branches, but we didn't get any traction and the main branch has actually catch to them in terms of compatibility(it has taken them nearly a decade to do so)
Icedragondee
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Re: Distros

Post by Icedragondee »

Thank you for clarifying. I do know that it will take a very long time. I'm sure it will be great when it is finally usable. I do enjoy looking at the advancements the developers are making throughout the OS and that's where my hype comes from; I'd say 60% seeing how the OS is developing and 40% the prospect of using it myself instead of Windows. That being said, I am tempering my expectations in terms of widespread adoption from folks. I do kinda see it getting the most use from companies who need something up to date, but also able to run their older software that modern versions of Windows cannot.
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leppy232
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Re: Distros

Post by leppy232 »

It's open source, there's not really much say in whether it's forked into another distribution. However, by that very same metric, I'm pretty sure that the devs are perfectly fine with people forking it -- or else, it wouldn't be open source. In fact, IIRC there already are one or two forks -- the main problem with doing so, at least right now, is that it's in alpha state, so your changes probably will need to be rewritten every once in a while as something fundamental changes that breaks your distribution.
Currently using: 0.4.15-x86-dev-4872-g8a3db97 (VirtualBox)
Pretty good so far, keep up the good work! :D
Formerly tested on: Dell Inspiron 2200, HP Pavilion p7-1155, want to test on: Dell Inspiron 8500, custom-build ROS machine (P4 2.8GHz, GF6800 Ultra)
dark
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Re: Distros

Post by dark »

"Distros" pretty much only exist because Linux and the other Unix clones were never designed to be a complete desktop system. Instead of unifying to make their desktop better, they compete and make dozens of different standards (recently snap, flatpack, etc.) A complete Windows clone would have no need for any of this, so ReactOS distros are about as likely as a fork of Blender being successful.
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: Distros

Post by dizt3mp3r »

Oh no. The fact that you can clone ReactOS, fork it and do what you want to it is the reason WHY it will be forked. I expect to see many forks, my own along with them. As far as functionality is concerned, it will be Windows 2003/XP compatible but if you want to take the GUI into any particular direction that is beyond XP's in built themeing, then you are going to have fork and extend.

I may fork in order to add and bundle in specific programs that I want an o/s to have off-the-shelf.

I may fork in order to have a working platform for a legacy program, bundling in-effect a complete o/s with a program.

There will be a plethora of forks.
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.
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irony
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Re: Distros

Post by irony »

doing it because you can, is a very bad reason. dark is absolutely right. also, you don't need to create a fork just to bundle "specific programs", not to mention - for adding themes. it's installable entities, that don't require you to compile the whole gigabytes worth project for adding them.
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EmuandCo
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Re: Distros

Post by EmuandCo »

dark wrote: Wed Dec 22, 2021 3:08 am "Distros" pretty much only exist because Linux and the other Unix clones were never designed to be a complete desktop system. Instead of unifying to make their desktop better, they compete and make dozens of different standards (recently snap, flatpack, etc.) A complete Windows clone would have no need for any of this, so ReactOS distros are about as likely as a fork of Blender being successful.
OMG I've not seen so much truth in here for months. Great one :D

And yes, as we are open source you can fork whatever you want. But you need to keep the license, the licensing headers telling about the origin and our name is not open source, that not to forget.
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...
Icedragondee
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Re: Distros

Post by Icedragondee »

dark wrote: Wed Dec 22, 2021 3:08 am "Distros" pretty much only exist because Linux and the other Unix clones were never designed to be a complete desktop system. Instead of unifying to make their desktop better, they compete and make dozens of different standards (recently snap, flatpack, etc.) A complete Windows clone would have no need for any of this, so ReactOS distros are about as likely as a fork of Blender being successful.
Hm, yeah. That honestly makes a ton of sense when you put it that way. Whatever the case may be, my excitement and intrigue for the steady development of this operating system remains and I can't wait for it to be useable... Though I will wait because I know that this stuff takes a lot of time.
larson9999
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Re: Distros

Post by larson9999 »

dark wrote: Wed Dec 22, 2021 3:08 am "Distros" pretty much only exist because Linux and the other Unix clones were never designed to be a complete desktop system. Instead of unifying to make their desktop better, they compete and make dozens of different standards (recently snap, flatpack, etc.) A complete Windows clone would have no need for any of this, so ReactOS distros are about as likely as a fork of Blender being successful.
I disagree. A very similar need for distros exist in the windows world. However, windows makes it harder to create a distro. I dare say there are legal blockers. Remove those blockers and there will distros regardless of how complete and compatible ROS becomes.

but first, lets get it stable :)
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leppy232
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Re: Distros

Post by leppy232 »

dizt3mp3r wrote: Wed Dec 22, 2021 4:11 pm Oh no. The fact that you can clone ReactOS, fork it and do what you want to it is the reason WHY it will be forked. I expect to see many forks, my own along with them. As far as functionality is concerned, it will be Windows 2003/XP compatible but if you want to take the GUI into any particular direction that is beyond XP's in built themeing, then you are going to have fork and extend.
For whatever reason, I have a dream in my mind of having a 64-bit, slightly modernized version of NT 3.51, and a fork of ReactOS is the best way to make that a reality.
Currently using: 0.4.15-x86-dev-4872-g8a3db97 (VirtualBox)
Pretty good so far, keep up the good work! :D
Formerly tested on: Dell Inspiron 2200, HP Pavilion p7-1155, want to test on: Dell Inspiron 8500, custom-build ROS machine (P4 2.8GHz, GF6800 Ultra)
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: Distros

Post by dizt3mp3r »

leppy232 wrote: Fri Feb 11, 2022 8:55 am For whatever reason, I have a dream in my mind of having a 64-bit, slightly modernized version of NT 3.51, and a fork of ReactOS is the best way to make that a reality.
There is nothing wrong with the idea of a 64bit Windows-compatible o/s with a decent and customisable UI.

We have a thread specifically for those reasons, feel free to add your reason to it, we'd like to hear it.
viewtopic.php?p=123529#p123529
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.
Icedragondee
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Re: Distros

Post by Icedragondee »

dizt3mp3r wrote: Fri Feb 11, 2022 12:29 pm
There is nothing wrong with the idea of a 64bit Windows-compatible o/s with a decent and customisable UI.

We have a thread specifically for those reasons, feel free to add your reason to it, we'd like to hear it.
viewtopic.php?p=123529#p123529
That thread is super insightful. I don't think I have any other reasons to add myself, but I pretty much agree with all of those other reasons aha.
I really am looking forward to the day that ReactOS is useable. I've become rather disenchanted with Windows as of late, increasingly frustrated even, but I just deal with it for the time being mostly.

Hoping for the best for you and the developers!
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