Newbie questions

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William Dojinn
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Newbie questions

Post by William Dojinn »

I realize these probably have been answered elsewhere, however because I'm lazy and because it might be useful to somebody else if these questions were lumped together I'm going to ask anyway.

1. How compatible, right now, is ReactOS with the current batch of windows apps.

2. Has directX been implamented yet? If so would downloading from microsoft work or would it break something within React?

3. I realize that ReactOS has its own shell that's in development however could other shells(even *gasp* microsoft's own shell) be used?

4. What's the status of ReactOS and networking? Could I just plug my eathernet cable in and go(doubtful)?

5. As compared to windows98 which uses more computing rescources and, in anyone's oppinion, is there a noticable difference in preformance?

6. USB, how well does react play with it? I ask because I have a USB cd burner.

7. How much tinkering needs to be done to have react work in a real enviroment?

8. Does react use FAT32 or NTFS as its 'native' format for drives and if it's ment to more closely emulate the 9x windows series does it work with NTFS drives?

9. I realize that you're trying to create an open scource implamentation of windows, but how well does it emulate DOS apps?

10. Furthermore would it be possible to intigrate freedos or whatever tat 32 bit port of dos that's being worked on to handle DOS apps if you don't have that angle covered?

I ask with the realization that ReactOS is NOT ready for widespread use and that it's still a beta product however it might be fun to slide in a spare computer/laptop and tinker with
Luemmel
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Post by Luemmel »

1. http://reactosde.re.funpic.de/compatibility.php

2. it's not yet fully implemented
the goal is 100% compatibility so: yes

3. the goal is 100% compatibility so: yes
http://reactosde.re.funpic.de/catappdet ... &appnr=122

4. no
the svn version has working networking but it's not really useable yet
http://www.reactos.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=188
http://www.reactos.com/en/content/view/full/7590
version 0.3 will be the "networking release"

6. there has been done some work but it's not ready

7. much - but it depends on what you call a "real enviroment"

8. FAT32 but it's planned to implement NTFS somehow
I ask with the realization that ReactOS is NOT ready for widespread use and that it's still a beta product
ReactOS is still alpha
William Dojinn
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Post by William Dojinn »

Well that answers those questions. Trying to see if I can't funnle a few programmers here since, lets face it, this has the potential of being a ground shaking development, an OS completely compatible with windows that's free, updated by the community(with a core group that decides what makes it into the update process to ensure nobody manages to slide a security flaw in along with useful update material), and allowing us as end users to have an option that remains compatible with the majority of apps out there.

That and the geek in me has always wondered just how much better you could make a windows compatible system if you could recode from the ground up.

Thanks for the info.
GvG
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Post by GvG »

Some more answers:

5. We haven't done much work on optimization yet. First goal is getting it to work, second goal is getting it to work fast. However, on the areas where we did invest some time in optimization (especially some of the lower-level graphics functions) we were able to beat XP.

8. We don't target 9x, that's a piece of crap which should die as soon as possible. We target the NT family (NT4, Win2k, XP, 2k3).

9. At the moment, there is no support at all for DOS apps.

If you can generate interest among programmers, that would be great. That is probably what we need the most at this point: developers, developers, developers...
forart
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Post by forart »

If you can generate interest among programmers, that would be great. That is probably what we need the most at this point: developers, developers, developers...
Well, i'm unofficially doing this sort of campign.

Here is a part of the response of glacialfury from the SharpE project (i asked them if they could "port" it to ReactOS):
Regardless of how this issue turns out, we would like to thank you for
your support and invitation, but future such requests should come from
the ReactOS team itself; if they are amenable to the idea, they should
contact us directly.
I hope it helps.
»Forward Agency NPO
In progress we (always) trust.
William Dojinn
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Post by William Dojinn »

Hmm, as compared to W2k/XP then. Hmm, I suppose if you could keep total memory useage for the OS itself to 32MB you'd already beat winodws out for recource useage(well windows nt4 would beat it but still, it's outdated to begain with).
dark
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Post by dark »

I don't think trying to get people to "port" their program to reactos will work because once reactos becomes compatable with the original windows software it will have been waisted effort.

I think the better path is to try to get attention from programmers that might want to help development. The only thing i can think of that end users can do is write reviews of the product and send them to a news site like osnews, or predict the future of reactos, etc...
cuppm
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Post by cuppm »

GvG wrote:developers, developers, developers...
Hey, GvG, you gonna be our Balmer? :)

http://www.ntk.net/ballmer/mirrors.html
William Dojinn
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Post by William Dojinn »

since this's the thread i made for questions here's another one.

When ReactOS reaches a useable state would i be able to simply pop in the driver CD that came with my computer/added hardware and install expecting to get the same results? Also what driver set would i have to use, nt/xp?
Luemmel
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Post by Luemmel »

ReactOS is an Open Source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows(R) applications and drivers.
XP is NT 5.1 and AFAIK this is the current aim
we'll see what longhorn brings (NT 5.3)
GvG
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Post by GvG »

William Dojinn wrote:When ReactOS reaches a useable state would i be able to simply pop in the driver CD that came with my computer/added hardware and install expecting to get the same results?
Yes, that's one of the main goals of the project.
William Dojinn wrote:Also what driver set would i have to use, nt/xp?
Both should work.
William Dojinn
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Post by William Dojinn »

Next on the big list o pointless questions.


When will sound be implamented?
GvG
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Post by GvG »

William Dojinn wrote:When will sound be implamented?
When someone with appropriate skills takes an interest in it and starts implementing.... This being an all-volunteer project, the volunteers get to choose what they want to invest their time in. Some work was done on sound, I think the guy who worked on it kind of lost interest. So, we're waiting for someone to come along and pick it up again.
GreatLord
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Post by GreatLord »

We do have some kind of sound support. But we are missing drv for sound. And not much work have been done at that area. Some people can play winquake (quake1) with sound and use older version of winamp with a nt4 drv of sound blaster. But is is like 50% chanse geting it working or less.

1. we need write a drv for each chip or end user can install there own sound drv. it does not exists any genretic standard how to programing sound chip. it is new specfiycation on eacy sound chip. No gerntic bios or like that.
A-v-S
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Post by A-v-S »

Once there were ... back in the old DOS days most cards were sound blaster compatible ... but those days are over ... since the pci sound cards and the introduction of windows 95, ( so not every game or app did have to make their own driver ) the compatibility depends on the drivers ...
"you laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same"

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