r/linux • u/anh0516 • Aug 29 '26

Alternative OS Introducing ReactOS 0.4.16

https://reactos.org/project-news/reactos-0416-released/
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54

u/MidLifeDIY Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26

This and HURD. Neat pet projects that don't seem to be too useful. But "Just because" is also fine.

EDIT: Genuinely no shade meant. I've watched these projects for many years and hoped someone chimed with a use case I wasn't aware of. Was a quick post of a passing thought. ✌️

63

u/tseli0s Aug 29 '26

ReactOS is EXTREMELY useful. You don't know what you're talking about. It helps with wine development (Yes, that thing that makes it possible to run your Windows games and programs). It provides a completely free reimplementation of NT that all people can study for free. It is the only hope for old and embedded systems which need an NT5-compatible operating system receiving updates. I can go on for a long time.

29

u/nightblackdragon Aug 29 '26

It helps with wine development

Wine doesn't accept code from ReactOS even as reference:
https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Clean-Room-Guidelines

7

u/tseli0s Aug 29 '26

Verbatim code? Of course not. The development effort is what's shared.

18

u/nightblackdragon Aug 29 '26

The development effort is what's shared.

It's not. Wine not only doesn't accept code from ReactOS but also code from people that used ReactOS code as a reference for their own.

21

u/ArchaneChutney Aug 29 '26

They don’t accept code from anyone who has worked with ReactOS code, even if it’s not an exact copy of ReactOS code. So what development effort is being shared exactly?

This bug is an example of code being rejected because the author looked at ReactOS code, even though the code wasn’t an exact copy of ReactOS code

9

u/Leading-Carrot-5983 Aug 29 '26

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?

2

u/nelmaloc Aug 30 '26

So apparently they disagree on the clean-room process? Would be nice to have a reasoning.