Na, Lindows was just Linux that looked like Windows (kinda). ReactOS is FOSS Windows, no Linux kernel involved. It’s an original kernel which apes Windows as closely as possible. The idea is that hopefully, some day, it’ll be a full drop-in replacement for Windows with full support for Windows software, no compatibility layer (e.g. no Wine) required.
Interesting. I applaud the efforts … though I do find myself wondering if that energy could have been focused on a more unified front for those compatibility layers instead. Backwards compatibility certainly would be useful but I feel like modern compatibility (parity) is a sisyphian task. You’d be eternally chasing a standard that a company is setting for you. The exact company with a history of file format and code changes to fuck with efforts identical to this. You’d never be able to pull ahead.
I’ll have to go read up on the project. I’m interested in the project itself - but deeply curious if they have addressed that elephant.
This point comes up a lot with obscure and seemingly pointless open source projects.
It doesn’t have to be useful. Let the devs do what they like with their lives, they don’t owe anyone their free time.
TBF this project started decades ago before proton and a lot of compatibility layers became mainstream.
Also, ReactOS is closely tied to helping WINE and always has been, so it’s not a complete waste. It’ll just never actually emulate Windows in any stable way.
Na, Lindows was just Linux that looked like Windows (kinda). ReactOS is FOSS Windows, no Linux kernel involved. It’s an original kernel which apes Windows as closely as possible. The idea is that hopefully, some day, it’ll be a full drop-in replacement for Windows with full support for Windows software, no compatibility layer (e.g. no Wine) required.
Interesting. I applaud the efforts … though I do find myself wondering if that energy could have been focused on a more unified front for those compatibility layers instead. Backwards compatibility certainly would be useful but I feel like modern compatibility (parity) is a sisyphian task. You’d be eternally chasing a standard that a company is setting for you. The exact company with a history of file format and code changes to fuck with efforts identical to this. You’d never be able to pull ahead.
I’ll have to go read up on the project. I’m interested in the project itself - but deeply curious if they have addressed that elephant.
This point comes up a lot with obscure and seemingly pointless open source projects.
It doesn’t have to be useful. Let the devs do what they like with their lives, they don’t owe anyone their free time.
TBF this project started decades ago before proton and a lot of compatibility layers became mainstream.
Also, ReactOS is closely tied to helping WINE and always has been, so it’s not a complete waste. It’ll just never actually emulate Windows in any stable way.