So, if you’ve never heard of ReactOS, it’s an alternative to Windows, except it’s open source, and reverse engineered.

The end result is, if it works on Windows, it works on ReactOS natively.

Now, as you might imagine, there are some issues with this. The most glaring one being that they’re currently in the year 2003. That’s the level they’re at with software. It’s not even emulation. It’s running the software natively, and it’s written from scratch.

But my takeaway is that Linux running windows apps natively would improve people’s hesitation to running linux.

Now since ReactOS is FOSS, any improvements made upon it could then be forked over to Linux. And if someone made a ReactOS fork, that isn’t linux, that’s good too (as long as it stays open source). Any advancements made by this new theoretical fork of ReactOS could ALSO be forked into linux.

Right now, development is slow, because it’s a community driven effort without much of a community. If it had a large and engaged community, all legally reverse engeneering the ways of windows? That would allow basically EVERY OS to have FOSS unofficial native windows support.

So I guess my question is, for an OS that’s been in development since 1998, why doesn’t the linux community embrace ReactOS?

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
    81·
    3 days ago

    Linux and Windows are, I think, too different conceptually

    That is correct. Linux is a UNIX variant/clone, one of many. UNIX isn’t just an OS, it’s an entire concept on how to build and organize an OS. People keep wanting it to be Windows, but it will never be Windows. I wish it could just stand on its own as a flexible, open, UNIX-like system with its own strengths, not just be a drop-in replacement for Windows on the desktop. Let’s make the UNIX way of doing things the normal, everyday way of doing things.