wildschwein wrote: ↑Tue May 05, 2020 7:21 pm
Give Reactos at most another decade...and it will "mess up" the world.
Because a lot of users and even states like Iran, China, Russia e.g. will slowly integrate it in their environment. Not from today to tomorrow, but they will go the "reactos way". So no more "secret backdoors" in Windows, and I think there a lot...very top secret and only to be used from CIA and others in an "emergency"...(What is today possible, will be done.)
It's not just national security-type issues, either. If you want a full library of user-type programs today you are stuck with Windows. But Windows brings Microsoft and Microsoft doesn't care about YOUR programs -- only those with enough business use to delay adoption of new Win versions: You can count on losing most of yours as time goes on. For Microsoft software maybe there'll be new versions for the new versions of Windows, maybe they'll work for you, and maybe the whole works will run on your existing hardware, but over time ... nope. Microsoft will force you to march to their drum because that's where the money is for them and the flotilla of hardware makers who ship with Windows.
If what you are doing and using works for you -- applications, OS version, computer -- count on it being steadily destroyed EXCEPT for what you have sitting on your desk ... for as long as you can keep the old computer working by buying parts, etc. To cope with new functional requirements you'll have to buy a new computer, run a new OS on it, because NOBODY is going to adapt your old OS and/or computer to run that new function.
ReactOS could one day offer an option. A stabilized functional interface that wouldn't dump old capabilities just to force you to buy new and start over. And if it did become that option, it would indeed be popular. I ran ROS daily for several months, using it for browsing web forums with Firefox 31.8 (as I recall -- anyway the latest I could install without a hang) which is most of what I do online. It was EXCELLENT including being an excellent performer.
Even web browsing, though, is standing close to the fence around what works: There's no support for USB or anything else that'll let you get files OFF of an ROS machine and none of the usual peripherals are supported except for those needed to install and boot an OS. Even the hardware itself: SSD's appear to not be allowed and I was unable to install ROS on a D-420, D-620, or D-410 -- only worked on a D-610.
And then somebody out there -- DISQUS maybe? -- changed something and I could no longer do comments. (I forget details.) So I'm back on XP.
I think ROS's problem is that it appears (to an outsider) to be a hobby project. It's not just a lack of a completion date; there isn't even a focus on getting basic functions to work before developing interesting variants. Over several months of running it I installed maybe a dozen new nightlies and never saw a functional step forward. There were three or four that wouldn't install or wouldn't boot after install (to be expected with alpha code) but to see no functional change suggests that most of the work is elsewhere. Someone mentioned 'virtualizing the OS.' I don't know what that means but it doesn't seem close to working USB, video, ability to run more current Firefox and a broader range of other apps, and so on.
There's probably no choice about this approach: It IS a hobby, meaning the people doing it will do what they enjoy. The danger is that there's some deadline out there that we don't yet know about that will end the project. Certainly there's a soft deadline as those who are used to an OS that runs on your own machine gradually go away and those who replace us see nothing wrong with having both data and programs 'in the cloud.' Of course that's already starting to happen ...
What? "If you wanna run ReactOS go buy a 2008 desktop computer and install Windows XP in order to download and install ROS ..." How many people who don't have an obsolete desktop and experience using it will be able to follow those directions, ten years hence? People who know how to use a desktop (or laptop) are a decaying resource and I have a hard time seeing any new OS getting many of them to start at the beginning. Sure, ROS probably intends to track new hardware developments but what if personal computers stop being full-OS capable because they run critical OS functions in the cloud? Lots of governments would like that and I doubt Microsoft or the manufacturers they (effectively) control would object.
I really don't have a conclusion here. There's a ton of fine work in what exists today -- 90% of what's needed to be called 'beta,' I'd say. Someone (more than one?) did a dramatic clean-up of the disk i/o over the period 2018-fall 2019 when I had stopped using it because of too many trashed disks. I hope it can go on from here to something closer to 'usable with occasional errors.' Certainly I'll look in again from time to time.