size of reactos

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William Dojinn
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Post by William Dojinn »

I agree with the thought of having a seconed cd onward avalible from here with 'reccommended tools' sorted by type(multimedia, games, office, server administration, ect) simply for the sake of conveniance for those willing to buy hard copies of CD's and wait for it to get to where you live via post.

For those downloading ReactOS(even if from a friend's computer) you should have AT LEAST a web browser included even if you're going to remove it in favor of something else since once you install you'll want to start doing some software grabbing of your own if you haven't already made cd's worth of stuff for your machine like some of us do out of habit.

Also for the sake of those who probably wouldn't know about these tools provide, if nothing else, links to sites that have oss equivilaints to tools and other things. Sure paint sucks but I actually get a fair bit of use out of it. I learned on that interface. Its simple, it hasn't changed since windows 3.11. Include a link to something that, if possible, has that same sort of look and feel. Same with wordpad...though for this example I can already point to abiword as an equivilant, though its more of a MSword replacement instead.

Just another new guy with a loud mouth.
hoover
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Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 7:04 am

http://theopencd.org

Post by hoover »

I'm not sure if anyone's said this yet, but if you have issues about using too much bandwidth, just use someone elses.
TheOpenCD already covers a lot of what has been said here and you could just redirect people to that site to download from them for the software (seeing as it should all run on ROS by the time it hits 1.0).
Anyway here is a link:
http://theopencd.org

The following applications are included on TheOpenCD 2.0:

Productivity Design Internet/Networking Multimedia Utilities Games
jro
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Post by jro »

Browser, Word Processor, Email...
I vote hell yes I want these in a "distro". People are going to want to use their computer after installing the "OS". I mean if the OS is so tiny, why not fill a CD with useful apps users will probably install anyway? I know we shouldn't try to be Linux there's no harm embracing other good GPL software just to be more "like windows".

About bandwidth, I think that's why GOD invented Bittorrent? Most Linux distros are now distributed via .torrent. why not ReactOS ? Maybe Dial-uppers can buy a CD from ReactOS and support development, or keep resuming a torrent for a week. Really the talk of "ReactOS's bandwidth" is moot when you consider the widespread use of .torrents.

I don't think a package manager is needed, or a good design/idea. Why, if windows-installers work fine? I hate having to manage 9000 libs or add 20 support packages when I install a Linux app. Many times I ask myself "wtf IS all that? where's it going?". In fact I think Linux folks are struggling to dump these managers in favor of "autopackage" which seems more like Windows installers. We do need a secure update system though.. maybe like Linux has. But I swear if you guys clone windows update!

I definatly agree we need a separate "core" that allows one to make a custom "distro" easily. Especially at this point when so much barely works at all... Let's focus now people! :wink:
Floyd
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Post by Floyd »

having spent time away from this thread, my current thought is this:

have a barebones OS with only 3 packaged apps and have a suggestions wizard or help file or whatever that recommends others for other categories.

the magic 3 apps would be:
a notepad type program for text editing, i prefer notepad++
a music player type program, i would prefer winamp lite
and a web browser to search for software, i would prefer firefox

that way, it's not a huge impact or extra to download, adn you can play your mp3s while downloading the gimp or open office.
;-)
pax mei amici amorque et Iesus sacret omnia
Floyd
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Post by Floyd »

jro wrote:Browser, Word Processor, Email...
I vote hell yes I want these in a "distro".
...

About bandwidth, I think that's why GOD invented Bittorrent? Most Linux distros are now distributed via .torrent. why not ReactOS ?
i think reactos.org "selling" cds as a way of distribution and fund-raising would be a good idea. and having a "lite" ISO image alongside a "fat" one would also be a good way of dealing with the problem too. but i think even a "lite" one would need a web browser, just out of necessity to find sites to download other stuff. and if people are so worried about "fat" web browsers, how about bundling the off-by-one browser, it's like 2 files and fits on a floppy uncompressed.
pax mei amici amorque et Iesus sacret omnia
cheshireccat
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Is it just me?

Post by cheshireccat »

Now I'm not really complaining, but dammit, what am I supposed to use this new DVD burner for? Truth be told I am glad to see an OS come in under one CD, my last two SUSe and Mandriva needed a dvd to install, but since I have not installed this due to questions I still have about boot options and if there will ever be a boot loader available for multiple OS'. I just can't understand how you fit an OS into 11 MB. Although 95 was that size, and I'm sure XP would be a lot smaller if not for the useless crap, what's going on here? Maybe it's just me.... I don't feel comfortable unless I have enough accessories to kill a goat.

Chesh

Light a man a fire and he will be warm for a night, light a man on fire and he will be warm the rest of his life.
Elledan
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Re: Is it just me?

Post by Elledan »

cheshireccat wrote:Now I'm not really complaining, but dammit, what am I supposed to use this new DVD burner for? Truth be told I am glad to see an OS come in under one CD, my last two SUSe and Mandriva needed a dvd to install, but since I have not installed this due to questions I still have about boot options and if there will ever be a boot loader available for multiple OS'. I just can't understand how you fit an OS into 11 MB. Although 95 was that size, and I'm sure XP would be a lot smaller if not for the useless crap, what's going on here? Maybe it's just me.... I don't feel comfortable unless I have enough accessories to kill a goat.
All I know is that Win2k fits comfortably on a 1 GB OS-only partition, whereas XP needs at least 3 GB unless you want to run out of space 2 seconds after installing the darn thing :D

I'm certain that ReactOS will become larger as more things are added, such as internationalization options (e.g. MSFT's IME input and support for non-Western languages). Fortunately if it becomes too bloated, someone will come along, strip out the fluff and release it as a ROS lite distro ^_-
Gasmann
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Re: Is it just me?

Post by Gasmann »

Elledan wrote:[...]whereas XP needs at least 3 GB unless you want to run out of space 2 seconds after installing the darn thing :D[...]
Huh? I've installed WinXP Pro SP1 as it came out-of-box on 2GB partition and it worked for half a year (then time came to reinstall of course). And I reinstalled again on this partition and it still didn't bloat to the limit of 2GB. From my experience 2GB as by far enough for Windows XP, if you use nlite you could maybe even install it on 1gb.
Elledan
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Re: Is it just me?

Post by Elledan »

Gasmann wrote:
Elledan wrote:[...]whereas XP needs at least 3 GB unless you want to run out of space 2 seconds after installing the darn thing :D[...]
Huh? I've installed WinXP Pro SP1 as it came out-of-box on 2GB partition and it worked for half a year (then time came to reinstall of course). And I reinstalled again on this partition and it still didn't bloat to the limit of 2GB. From my experience 2GB as by far enough for Windows XP, if you use nlite you could maybe even install it on 1gb.
Alright, I was exaggerating :)

Although, I installed WinXP Pro SP2 on a 2 GB partition a few days ago, and I most definitely did not have enough space to even burn a CD using the built-in CD-RW writing capabilities, as the temp folder for that is located on the OS partition.
oiaohm
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Distro Requirement

Post by oiaohm »

Unattended/Ani Support required.

Heck even better yet setup option for creating a Unattended install system.

Nlite will get it under a 1G but things will not be happy at times.

You can shove XP under 700 megs with some applications. Its not happy if you don't watch it. It will start thinking its a PE install not a harddrive one an get really upset.
Kiggles
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Post by Kiggles »

I've jumped ahead a little, but it seems that not only the thread has derailed a touch, but a lot of people may have been missing the purpose of ReactOS... bear in mind, I am very out of the loop. I really only drop by periodically to check version releases, so if the ideology behind this Operating System have changed, overlook the following, and kindly inform me.

With that said, it was my understanding ReactOS was to effectively become not only an open source windows alternitive, but a 100% compatible open source windows alternitive. In effort to accomplish that compatibility there are many things which will simply NEED to be accomplished "the Windows way". In short, a web browser is absolutely necessary. Many applications out there will call iexplorer, and inorder to assure compatibility, the ReactOS team will NEED to include some sort of fauximily. How would many Windows Gamers out there feel when Steam doesn't work on ReactOS, because it doesn't have a necesarry web browser installed for Steam to operate. All issues of the quality of the Steam software side, the Counter-strike community is freaking huge, and something as simple a lacking ANY sort of web browser 'out of the box', means Steam will NOT work on a basic ROS install.

In short, we can complain all we want about what comes packaged with ROS, or the size of the package itself, but some compromises simply can not be made when the ultimate goal is a 100% WindowsNT4 compatible open source OS.

Best solution. The ReactOS team develops all of these components independantly, to ensure they are as streamlined as possible. In otherwords, only the most necessary function of software required for compatibility should be the consern. If an individual is looking for a more robust feature rich web browser than the dinky bit of software they get with ReactOS 'out of the box', they're more than welcome to even download and run the latest version of IE 8, or a decade old version of Netscape.

Sure, we (ROS supports and team members) need to consider how to promote and make ROS accessible, but let's keep our eye on the ball, until we can an OS that can even accomidate many potential target users. With lack of networking support, gaming isn't much of an option, as is quite obviously, web browsing. Word Processing. Sure, but there are too many compatibilty issues to consider before even thinking about additional software.

Again, if the ReactOS design philosophy has truely changed so much in half a year, I am welcome to enlightement, but I can't help but get the feeling the objectives are getting lost in the shuffle. Many things will need to be done the 'Windows way', in order to ensure compatibility out of the box, and inorder to accomplish this what many of you consider 'additional' software will just not be additional. It will be REQUIRED. The Windows way just happens to be included web browser, perhaps even integrated into the OS itself. If this is a necessary evil, then it is a tough break, but nothing we can do about it and remain on course.

Keep up the discussion, though. Free exchange of thoughts and ideas certainly doesn't hurt, and can even help me get smarter. :D

Keep it real,
-B
chris319
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Post by chris319 »

Best solution. The ReactOS team develops all of these components independantly, to ensure they are as streamlined as possible.
There is a practical reason you don't want to go that route: ReactOS developers are a finite resource. If you allocate them to the creation of a web browser, you're taking them away from other aspects of ROS development. Given that there are already browsers which will fill the bill quite nicely, to allocate ReactOS developers to creating a brand new browser would be an unnecessary duplication of effort.
Elledan
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Post by Elledan »

chris319 wrote:
Best solution. The ReactOS team develops all of these components independantly, to ensure they are as streamlined as possible.
There is a practical reason you don't want to go that route: ReactOS developers are a finite resource. If you allocate them to the creation of a web browser, you're taking them away from other aspects of ROS development. Given that there are already browsers which will fill the bill quite nicely, to allocate ReactOS developers to creating a brand new browser would be an unnecessary duplication of effort.
Solution: wrap the Gecko rendering engine in an API similar to the one used for iexplore :)
GvG
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Post by GvG »

Elledan wrote:Solution: wrap the Gecko rendering engine in an API similar to the one used for iexplore :)
Which is exactly what we do :)
Mike
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Post by Mike »

Sure, compatibility is nice... but so is customizability.

Not everyone that will be using ReactOS is going to want a bloated OS with useless applications like Windows does.
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