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ReactOS 0.3 RC1 Released 54

Posted by timothy from the window-sans-windows dept.
ajdlinux writes "A few days ago ReactOS 0.3 RC1 was released! After a long 6 months without a release this seems good! The ReactOS team has also started a software compatibility list for programs that are ReactOS-compatible. AFAIK the documentation and wiki hasn't yet been updated, but it should be soon. Go get it and try it out!"
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ReactOS 0.3 RC1 Released More

ReactOS 0.3 RC1 Released

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  • Excited submitter? (Score:5, Funny)

    by christopherfinke ( 608750 ) <chris@efinke.com> on Thursday June 22, 2006 @09:16AM (#15581743) Homepage Journal
    A few days ago ReactOS 0.3 RC1 [CC] was released! After a long 6 months without a release this seems good! [...] Go get it and try it out!
    Thanks! I! Will!

  • Auditing... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MMC Monster ( 602931 ) on Thursday June 22, 2006 @09:22AM (#15581776)
    More importantly, auditing of the ReactOS source is more than 90% complete.

    A fully audited source will help prevent tainting of code from unscrupulous coders.
    • "More" importantly?

    • Re:Auditing... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ekhymosis ( 949557 ) on Thursday June 22, 2006 @09:26AM (#15581813) Homepage
      I agree. The project manager took good initiative to stop everything to audit the code to cover their asses. We don't need tainted code in OSS, especially not when it is inside a very promising project. I do hope they achieve their goals, especially to show that it CAN be done WITHOUT copying. Let's just hope Ballmer and his thugs don't get trigger happy with their bs ip stuff. Good luck to the ReactOS crew, I commend you for bearing this grueling audit and legal pratter that major companies like to threaten OSS community coders with.
      • I agree. It's a very promising project.
        That is, if it ever succeeds.
        Right now it's pretty much anal pudding for most, I mean, all users and/or servers. However, windows compatibility is the one thing everybody wants to have, and if we can get that thing to work and also have a familiar look & feel, ReactOS is going to absolutely rock.

  • ReactOS is a Windows compatible OS (Score:5, Informative)

    by Pigeon451 ( 958201 ) on Thursday June 22, 2006 @09:29AM (#15581828)
    For those who have never heard of it and thought "YAY another Linux distro" (like me), it's a Windows compatible OS.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS

    • Even if you run Linux, ReactOS is a project worth paying attention to.

      Right now we have Wine (or Cedega, if you prefer) if you want to run Windows applications on Linux. However, what's always intrigued me about ReactOS is the possibility of using it as the client OS on a virtual machine. I think this has certain advantages over Wine (sandboxing, greater application compatibility), and removes the biggest disincentive to Windows virtualization -- the requirement of purchasing a Windows license.

      Also, because it's open source, it seems like it would be easier to get ReactOS working as a client OS on a paravirtualized system like Xen without having to use things like Vanderpool/Pacifica or accept the performance penalties of VMware. That, to me seems very cool: I could be running a Linux system as the server/Domain-zero OS, and then have multiple paravirtualized, Windows-compatible clients running on it, at full speed, without having to purchase any licenses or being dependent on any specialized virtualization hardware.
      • That's the dream, but from what I've heard the reality is that it's not any more Windows-compatible than WINE is, and with Vista coming out soon it may become largely irrelevant.

      • there's a better way: Terminal Server capability (Score:5, Interesting)

        by lkcl ( 517947 ) <lkcl@lkcl.net> on Thursday June 22, 2006 @12:40PM (#15583331) Homepage
        there's an even better way to make ReactOS incredibly useful: add in terminal server capability.
        then once you have a server running in the [virtual-]machine of your choice, you can then run rdesktop or other thin client to connect to it.

        here's the thing: the original developers of NT 3.1 were _not_ going to add a GUI: they planned it as a DOS-like (actually VMS-like) "thing" - and were told "from on high" to get it "windowsey". what make ReactOS so interesting is that such a goal could ultimately be achieved - making it much easier to virtualise because you wouldn't need a full desktop environment in the virtual machine: just a command prompt.

        the difficulty with putting ReactOS into a virtual machine like XEN - which is a hybrid VM architecture - is that you need to rewrite your HAL (hardware abstraction layer) to fit on top of XEN, not to fit on top of "real" hardware.

        here's the real kicker about that: once you _have_ written a XEN-HAL for ReactOS - with complete source code available to you - there exists a strong possibility of being able to "drop in" those .SYS and .DLL components _directly_ into Windows NT 5.0 (aka Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and Windows XP) and actually have it work.
        • The whole terminal server aspect is something I'd not thought of before.

          I wonder what it would take to build something that wasn't a desktop OS, but was just capable of serving up applications remotely, over Citrix, or something Citrix-like?

          There could be a big market for something that let you serve up Windows applications (even older Win98 ones), without paying the really steep Windows Terminal Server per-seat licensing fees. I've worked on some Citrix stuff and the amount they pay in licensing is just ou
      • That's exactly what I came here to post on it... But, does react OS work with Xen? Yes!

        http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Xen_port [reactos.org]

        Mmm. Fun times, kids.
    • Compatable, Very Compatable...(see bsod)

      Screenshot [photobucket.com]

  • Well, because it's a windows like OS... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GonzoTech ( 613147 ) on Thursday June 22, 2006 @09:38AM (#15581897)
    .. does that mean that we're subject to viruses, spyware, and other things that love to eat up Windows?

    I guess the good news is that I can get a FREE OS that will get manipulated just by hooking up to the net.

    My two cents..

    • I'm afraid the answer to that is yes. But the good news is, since ReactOS is not 100% compatible with Windows yet, not all the nasties run on ReactOS either.

    • Yes, but... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The short answer is yes, any OS that is going to be Windows compatible is going to be compatible with Windows malware.

      The reason that Windows is so crappy with security is the evil demon of backwards compatibility. Microsoft has to make "C:\Program Files" writeable because of all of the Windows software that expects it to be writeable. Microsoft's efforts to somehow have their cake and eat it too (by locking down those directories with hacks to support older software) with Vista is a major stumbling block
      • With the source code to the entire operating system at their disposal, the ReactOS people could do a lot to fix the security bugs.

        -How about an extra set of control panels or .conf files that let the Administrator lock down certain services.
        -Intercept certain system calls and ensure that, say, applications can only write to certain folders and only read or write certain pieces of the registry.
        -Running the web browser as a seperate application instead of an inherent piece of the operating system would help.

    • Re:Well, because it's a windows like OS... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dillee1 ( 741792 ) on Thursday June 22, 2006 @11:10AM (#15582643)
      yes and no.

      Yes if you click yes to every random popup and run unknown exe w/o a thought. No OS can help you this way.

      No if you are talking about automated worms. Being windows compartible doesn't mean that it need to imitate its security holes as well.

    • Security-Enhanced Windows (Score:3, Interesting)

      by lkcl ( 517947 )
      here's the thing: the fact that you have the source code means that you can consider adding the FLASK security model to it, thereby providing a proper MAC control over what programs can and cannot do.

      note: i didn't say that this would be a _small_ project - i just said that it would be _possible_.

      and here's the kicker: the DLLs and .SYS drivers and .EXEs produced for ReactOS are near-drop-in-replacements for their windows equivalents.

      there therefore exists a strong possibility of being able to run Windows N

      • You can already do this (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Your security enhanced Windows already exists. Go to users, and turn off the option "Run as Administrator"

        Once that option is off, pretty much none of these baddies run. Cool eh? The reason that more people don't do this is because certain crappy software will refuse to run. This isn't the fault of Windows; this is the fault of this crappy software. Additionally, people would have to run installers as administrators - not a big problem for you and I but it would be a problem for Grandma.
        • Your security enhanced Windows already exists.

          I'm sorry, but this pops up every time there's a Windows security discussion, and its wrong every time. There are new privilege escalation exploits being found every month in Windows, and the only reason black-hats aren't commonly using them is because there's no need. Running as non-admin is sensible, but its not a panacea.

  • OMG this is SO Windows (Score:5, Funny)

    by giorgiofr ( 887762 ) on Thursday June 22, 2006 @10:01AM (#15582091)
    First thing it did was BLUE SCREEN on me. Oh teh hilarity! I am not kidding, look here: http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/8862/reactos5ba .png [imageshack.us]
    • First thing it did was BLUE SCREEN on me. Oh teh hilarity! I am not kidding, look here:

      You're running it on Virtual PC, so this is not really relevant. Lots of Operating Systems which run perfectly well on real hardware crash when run under virtualisation.

      Your total failure to note that rather important fact in your comment makes it a little disingenuous and, dare I say, karma whoring.
      • Lots of Operating Systems which run perfectly well on real hardware crash when run under virtualisation.

        BS. Anyway my "total failure" to report that does not ma-- wait a sec, how did you find out? Oh, because I put a frigging SCREENSHOT up on ImageShack? OMG I am teh stealthy, apparently. Karma whore? How about... HAVING FUN? I made a *joke*. You know what... I didn't even mention that on the second run it did work quite well. So I guess that makes me some fundie child-molesting nazist, or something?
      • dare I say, karma whoring.


        "Funny" does not affect your karma. You've been here a while, you should know that by now.
  • May be they are getting ready for another round.
    Ekush [72.14.207.104]
  • So why would an OS be better at running windows programs than WINE is? Is it beying an OS giving it any sort of advantage over WINE ?
    • You don't need to learn Linux to use ReactOS. End users wouldn't need to be retrained. More importantly for businesses, Systems Administrators and Network Administrators that were used to Windows wouldn't need to be retrained. Installing Windows software would work, ideally, the exact same it would on an actual Microsoft operating system.

      You would get the ability to use all of your Windows-compatible software PLUS no cost for the operating system PLUS the ability to view the source code of the operating

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