Open Source Alternative to Windows

[jonovid]

ReactOS
https://reactos.org
are you not satisfied with Windows In 2021?
maybe its the direction Microsoft is moving in.   
so is ReactOS a true alternative to Windows?
its looks very 1998 retro  a Win98 look about it.
has anyone tryed ReactOS on a home PC?
can it run todays video and or audio editor's , PC games esc..? can it run ActiveX for games?
-maybe retro games only?
or is ReactOS still too deeply in-development to use as an alternative to Windows.

be interesting to know if you have used it
see this
ReactOS_ Can It Replace Windows In 2021_!

alternatives to ReactOS?

[Benta]

No interest. I changed to Lubuntu 2 years ago. It's plenty "Windows-alike" for my purposes. Games: don't care.

But I wonder about the sales plug. Is that really necessary? Makes your "ReactOS" look like snake oil.

[james_s]

I played around with it a couple years ago out of curiosity and found it to be rather rough around the edges, offering little in the way of advantages over an older copy of the real deal. Interesting concept though.

[DiTBho]

For me it's interesting because I need to run Avoget and other precious Wintel applications.
However, ReactOS is limited to what? Windows 2000?

[SiliconWizard]

Ahah, seeing the title, I thought "huh... Linux?".

But yeah. A more direct "alternative". ReactOS is now a very old project, and has never really took off. It's what? 20 years old or so? And still never reached anywhere close to version 1.0...

It's of course a lot of work, and was an interesting initiative at the time. But I honestly don't think it will ever be useful.

If you need to run Windows apps, your best and most robust bet these days would just be Linux + Wine. Now if this combo is not fit for your purpose for performance reasons, or hardware support reasons, I really doubt ReactOS would be close to giving you a better alternative at this point. So...

I'm admirative that some people are still working on ReactOS, though. Given the state of things, it could have been abandoned entirely.

[Zero999]

It admit I can't be bothered to watch a 36 minute video about it.

I haven't used ReactOS but it's good it has been developed, because it's benefited other projects, such as WINE, which I do use.

[SiliconWizard]

I haven't used ReactOS but it's good it has been developed, because it's benefited other projects, such as WINE, which I do use.

Not that it really matters, it's not a contest... but, from what I remember, I think Wine actually benefited more to ReactOS than the other way around, all in all. Wine also started 5 years before ReactOS.

ReactOS shows how hard writing a Windows-compatible OS would be. This is a 23 years old project, and it's still not fully usable. Of course, one of the reasons is all the reverse-engineering that had to be done. Another reason is probably the lack of contributors. I don't think it generated a lot of traction. Possibly, a lot of potential contributors did consider this project an oddball in the open-source world, and were even fearing the project would end up being shot down by MS. As the story goes, there was an audit in 2006 that showed some suspicion regarding the possibly copy of some binary code straight from Windows. This contributed to many developers quitting the project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReactOS#Internal_audit
The source code seems pretty clean these days. But as I said, I think it's too late. Now, who knows...

[Lord of nothing]

Linux + Wine

Can a Software Access Hardware like it work in Win(7)? 
I use a lot of Software who run only on Windows not on a native Linux. And no I cant change an Application since the have unique features I want, need,...

[DiTBho]

If you need to run Windows apps, your best and most robust bet these days would just be Linux + Wine.

Linux + Wine doesn't support software like Avoget, because Wine is limited to the API interface.
ReactOS makes more sense, but I need something compatible with at least Windows XP

[james_s]

You'd probably be better off just using Windows XP. ReactOS is far from finished, and I suspect it never will be finished. I would not automatically assume it to be more secure than XP, it is of similar age and does not appear to have a great deal of development happening.

[pramod7770]

I experimented with ReactOS a while back out of curiosity, mostly on a spare machine and in a VM. In my experience, it’s still very much a technical proof-of-concept rather than a practical Windows replacement.

Compatibility is the main limitation. Even though the goal is NT/XP-level compatibility, many modern applications, drivers, games, and editors either don’t install or behave unpredictably. Hardware support in particular feels far behind what you’d expect for daily use, and I wouldn’t rely on it for video editing, modern games, or anything ActiveX-dependent beyond very basic legacy software.

Where ReactOS is interesting is as a learning project and for testing very old Windows software without running an actual Windows install. Outside of that, Linux + Wine or a lightweight Windows install still seem far more usable in practice, even if they aren’t perfect.

For anyone comparing options or checking software compatibility across platforms, I’ve found it useful to look at neutral software directories that list system requirements and real-world usage notes, for example:
https://appgetters.com

It helps set expectations before spending time installing something experimental like ReactOS.

Overall, I respect the effort behind the project, but at its current pace I don’t see it becoming a true Windows alternative anytime soon.

[SiliconWizard]

You'd probably be better off just using Windows XP. ReactOS is far from finished, and I suspect it never will be finished. I would not automatically assume it to be more secure than XP, it is of similar age and does not appear to have a great deal of development happening.

Also note that there's a still relatively "recent" release of Windows XP, available from MS: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11196
Targeted for POS but it's a full-fledged Windows XP, still usable if your software or hardware can run on it.

[Analog Kid]

Lessee: regardless of what you think of Micro$oft as a corporation, who you gonna trust:
A dedicated team of developers, designers, coders and testers with years of experience and tons of resources?
Or a rag-tag team of volunteers pouring their little hearts out in code on a vast project?

[nctnico]

Lessee: regardless of what you think of Micro$oft as a corporation, who you gonna trust:
A dedicated team of developers, designers, coders and testers with years of experience and tons of resources?
Or a rag-tag team of volunteers pouring their little hearts out in code on a vast project?

I'm not quite sure which one of those teams you are referring to is the one working at Microsoft. Remember that Microsoft had to hire the guy from Sysinternals because he knew more about the internals of Windows than the development team working on Windows.

[SiliconWizard]

Lessee: regardless of what you think of Micro$oft as a corporation, who you gonna trust:
A dedicated team of developers, designers, coders and testers with years of experience and tons of resources?
Or a rag-tag team of volunteers pouring their little hearts out in code on a vast project?

I'm not quite sure which one of those teams you are referring to is the one working at Microsoft. Remember that Microsoft had to hire the guy from Sysinternals because he knew more about the internals of Windows than the development team working on Windows.

Just like in most companies, big or small alike: usually a very few engineers know the low-level parts of a given system inside out, even in large teams. So when one of them leaves, a lot of the knowledge goes with them. That's less true for the higher level parts.

So yeah, that's not much about years of experience and tons of resources here, that's more about the relative reliability of Windows vs. a 100% reverse-engineered clone. Reverse-engineering can only get you so far. (Although, I think there was a rumor that one of the ReactOS devs had had access to the Windows source code through a university program and had copied some of it, but I think this was eventually settled not to be the case.)

That said, ReactOS and Wine have fed each other and while ReactOS is still far from being usable as a daily driver, Wine can definitely run an impressive number of Windows apps on Linux and FreeBSD. So at least through Wine, the project has not been a dead-end.

[jonovid]

what about Winux?  a windows theme over linux
https://winuxos.org/
previously known as Wubuntu and LinuxFX
it will run Wine  .exe
see video about Winux

[Simmed]

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=linuxfx

I discovered Winux almost by accident and, out of curiosity, downloaded and installed version 11.25.11. I rolled on the floor laughing (of admiration).
It's really nice, the Winux Team guys did an excellent job, it's practically the same as Windows 11 with a splash of Windows 10. I haven't tested all the features (Windows and Android programs), but what I've used so far works great.
In short, it's (KDE)Ubuntu with a Windows skin. I have some experience with both Linux and Windows, and I can't say whether a complete Linux beginner can easily master the OS, but by seeking help online, I believe anyone can solve any problems and/or further customize the OS.
Pros: Winux is usable right out of the box with the proposed configuration, and other applications can be easily added using the "Discover" package manager.
Cons:
- Bluetooth doesn't work, but this happens with many distros.
- KDE Connect works great (tested on an HP Z1-G8 desktop computer).
- To install the Nvida driver, you need to find the correct section in the "System Settings."
- At each startup, you're prompted to purchase the "Power Pack." I think it would be appropriate to explain what it contains, even if it's not mandatory, and I don't think it's necessary to buy it.

At each startup, you're prompted to purchase the "Power Pack."

 
im sure power users know how to disable these

[SteveThackery]

[...] Wine can definitely run an impressive number of Windows apps on Linux and FreeBSD.

I'm not impressed. Have you checked out the compatibility database recently? Not many of the apps I like were supported.

[woofy]

A while ago I tried to run Proteus with Wine/Linux. It ran but poorly with graphics issues causing buttons to be overlayed rendering them unavailable. It was also very slow and I gave up on that. Now I keep a copy of Windows on my PC just for Proteus. That's dual booted, not in a VM.

[paulca]

I know this isn't a Desktop OS, but for some reason the thread reminded me of it.

https://casaos.zimaspace.com/

Click "Live Demo" and it will run your own temporary instance of the OS (in the cloud). 

Typical target is a micro-pc, SBC or NAS.  It provides self hosting toolkit that's pointy clicky.

[geralds]

You'd probably be better off just using Windows XP. ReactOS is far from finished, and I suspect it never will be finished. I would not automatically assume it to be more secure than XP, it is of similar age and does not appear to have a great deal of development happening.

Also note that there's a still relatively "recent" release of Windows XP, available from MS: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11196
Targeted for POS but it's a full-fledged Windows XP, still usable if your software or hardware can run on it.

Do you know whether there is a similar MS Distro based on Win 7 Pro? I might try this on some old PC... Thanks

[Randy222]

I forgot the thread title.....

Android. Have at it.

[Benta]

Impressive.
A first-post user revives a 5-year old thread, and you all jump in?
Wow! Just wow!

[SiliconWizard]

You'd probably be better off just using Windows XP. ReactOS is far from finished, and I suspect it never will be finished. I would not automatically assume it to be more secure than XP, it is of similar age and does not appear to have a great deal of development happening.

Also note that there's a still relatively "recent" release of Windows XP, available from MS: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11196
Targeted for POS but it's a full-fledged Windows XP, still usable if your software or hardware can run on it.

Do you know whether there is a similar MS Distro based on Win 7 Pro? I might try this on some old PC... Thanks

There is: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26558

Now I don't know exactly how the licensing works, so you'll have to figure it out. Also note that of course, support has ended. Not sure there's a benefit in using that rather than the normal Win 7 SP1 Pro, which should be available for download as well, at least somewhere, if you want to use that as a "desktop" OS. But the benefit is that it's a very stripped-down version of Windows with only the minimum.

[PlainName]

Impressive.
A first-post user revives a 5-year old thread, and you all jump in?
Wow! Just wow!

Doesn't matter who posts in what - if there is something to say it will be said, otherwise it won't.

Regards of whether the reviver was a 1 or 20,000 poster, it brought the subject back to the fore and people had something new to say (and the OS-in-a-webpage caught my eye).

If the poster has done something wrong, or you think he's a bot, scammer, treez, whatever, then you can report to admins and they'll take care of everything. No need to imply everyone is a dick for having a discussion without ad-hom takedowns for once.