ReactOS Forum

ReactOS has come a long way and I'm still amazed by how much you guys are able to accomplish with every new release, but I was thinking that behind almost every large successful open source project there is/are one/a few companies contributing code and funds - OpenOffice and Sun, Firefox and Google, Linux and IBM, Redhat, Novell etc.

Did any company show interest in getting involved in ReactOS, and what is your position on this matter?

As far as i know, there isnt any company willing to help ReactOS nowadays.
IMO, i would like to have one,it should speed up the development, but of course i want ReactOS still open and GPL. Company can win the right of selling support(as Canonical does with Ubuntu). I think this is the approach that almost all companies have when supporting Open Source.

I am sure a few businesses that is based off a windows platform might be willing to lend support. If we can give a company a reason/choice to migrate from a windows platform to ROS that would save companies a lot of money and possibly increase the clientele that these companies could / would have.

Win-win situation.

Hi,

You should ask this company:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wl/jobs/J ... =AG0001603

Administrations and Governments would be a nice possibility too, obtaining some help to develop thanks to their IT grants obtaining some revenue as having Ros installed in their machines.Which usually doesnt support a high load of work.

The Wikipedia page shows fireball with some Russian politician (Viktor Alksnis) showing off ReactOS, so maybe the Russian gov't could pitch in. I imagine some people outside of the US mind having to pay a giant American corporation to run software on their computers. Hell, I mind it and I'm American.

The only problem with looking to companies for support is that Microsoft would probably scare off any big computer companies that showed interest in ReactOS. Microsoft has been known in the past to force PC manufacturers to only sell Windows on their computers or lose their ability to sell Windows entirely. The FTC just filed a unfair business practices case against Intel for manhandling Gateway, Dell and others to sell Intel chips over AMD and others. The big names in computing might feel it's too risky to fight Microsoft over an alpha-build software project. Linux was already mature by the time it got corporate sponsorship. Governments might be the only ones with enough clout to stand up against that kind of aggression.

Probably the best way for ReactOS to get corporate sponsorship in the near term is to make its own. When ReactOS becomes more stable someone could make a ReactOS company providing technical support and services, and some of the funds could be blown back to support ReactOS development.

why not contact the olpc project, they plan to make their next machine (XO 1.5) compatible to windows software, so this should be an opportunity for both projects...

Well, I believe that the best way to manage the commercial partners wannabe is through an 'ad hoc' foundation (Xiph teaches) 'cause, in this way, companies can deduct sponsorship costs.

Another good move could be to involve HW manufacturers in open source drivers development: this could also benefit many other OSes.

Hope that inspires !

forart wrote:Another good move could be to involve HW manufacturers in open source drivers development: this could also benefit many other OSes.

We must involve AMD! =)

But this does not make much sense for reactos since most drivers reactos needs are already developed by the manufacturers for windows, what gives reactos a big advantage on linux and other open source oses and is one of the main purposes of reactos...

Of any help we require, besides resources, is know-how and experience regarding NT architecture. Its not about drivers, but rather about how are those programmed and what undocumented stuff they use.

Haos wrote:Of any help we require, besides resources, is know-how and experience regarding NT architecture. Its not about drivers, but rather about how are those programmed and what undocumented stuff they use.

Seconding Haos's comment, rivers aren't an issue to ReactOS. We should be able to run Windows drivers. Whether or not ReactOS should have drivers packed in or not, and, if we do, should we only use open-source drivers is a separate debate in and of itself. (The current answer to the driver question is "No packed-in drivers", by the way.) However, having the support and know-how of the companies writing the drivers would be of use, since guys that write drivers all day probably have a pretty good idea of how Windows handles drivers.

Open-source drivers??

We are currently in possession of largest NT open-source driver collection. Besides us its pretty non-existent.

Haos wrote: Open-source drivers??

There exists a thread on the Russian forum, whose author collects links on such software in the hope that it can be useful.

I find some of the projects interesting. Few USB stack projects, soundcard drivers, a project with its own STL and one for VBE 1.2 support.