My two cents

[crunchy_pickle]

I've thought about coding an operating system that was compatible with Windows for a long time. Personally, I disagree with a lot of Microsoft's practices and decisions. With this being said, Windows is still the operating system of choice unfortunately, because most programs are developed for the Windows operating system.

This being said, a lot of games these days have linux support. While Linux can be an effective gaming and office desktop, it can't run a lot of multimedia apps. I'm a musician, businessman, and a gamer.

I think it would be nice to have an OS that was stable and compatible with directx and could run windows programs natively. Personally, I don't agree with the legality of Microsoft holding certain patents that basically make it very difficult to make a compatible operating system, but I applaud your efforts and look forward to testing out ReactOS.

As far as features I would like to see in ReactOS:

Native support for audio applicatons such as Cubase, VST Plugins, etc

Backward compatibility for 16 bit applications on a 64 bit version of ReactOS

Really, I think that about covers it. I'd like to be able to play old windows games, and run olderapplications that require 16 bit support as well as run any game or application with a variety of hardware configurations.

Now if you could somehow add MacOS support as well, that would be nifty.

[Ferret-Simpson]

Apple are supposedly releasing a windows version of the Cocoa API. So the ReactOS guys don't NEED to make it OSX compatible.

[frik85]

Apple are supposedly releasing a windows version of the Cocoa API. So the ReactOS guys don't NEED to make it OSX compatible.

OpenStep the Framework (Cocoa & Co.) were not only availble for NextStep (the operating system which has been relabled as "MacOS X") but also for Unix and Windows NT. After Apple renamed NextStep to MacOS X, the closed the x86 version of NextStep for several years (until it comeback with "Intel-Mac"). Although, I don't think OpenStep will come back as a Framework for WinNT/ReactOS.

Note: A group of open source devs are working on an open source variant of OpenStep ...

[oiaohm]

Ok you mean http://www.gnustep.org (gnu openstep/nextstep ) The open source clone of it. There is a Windows edition.

Feel free to try it. Its not as advanced as Cocoa API. Its also not heavy used any more either but its still developing.

[Andre]

It would be nice to see 16 bit support, in both 32 and 64 bit versions of reactos. But I guess that is something that doesn't have much focus at the moment. I still hope it will be added some day.
At least in the 32 bit version.
But is it possible in 64 bit? I am not sure, but as far as I am informed, once you switch the cpu in 64 bit mode, it disables support for 16 bit code. How true is that?

[oiaohm]

Yes and no. It does not have vm86 mode in 64 bit mode. But still has a 16 bit mode protected. It harder because the vm86 does not set its self up automaticly just by calling a few instructions. Yet something equal to a vm86 can still be setup. The modes in 64 bit mode are 64 bit 32bit protected and 16 bit protected.

Also with the new functions in AM2 socket AMD's and Pent 4 Duo's there is not reason why a 32 bit version of Reactos could not run side by side with a 64 bit version of Reactos as long as there is a way of sharing the screen interface.