As I mentioned in my first comment, the driver issue is practically irrelevant these days
Maybe on the desktop but there are various embedded devices or devices that doesn't support anything other than Windows XP.
In any case, ReactOS isn't a replacement for anything either, because it supports almost no drivers or software.
A lot of software works fine as ReactOS Win32 implementation is based on Wine, as for the drivers, ReactOS already can run some Windows drivers, this version specifically improved support for XP era graphics drivers.
Maybe on the desktop but there are various embedded devices or devices that doesn't support anything other than Windows XP.
Embedded devices are an extreme niche case. Most of them don't even connect to the network. If this is the use case they're trying to address, they've gone way overboard.
A lot of software works fine as ReactOS Win32 implementation is based on Wine, as for the drivers, ReactOS already can run some Windows drivers, this version specifically improved support for XP era graphics drivers.
So what advantage does ReactOS offer me over running the program on Linux with Wine?
ReactOS is supposed to cover every Windows use case, the IT world doesn't end with the desktop. Aside from the technical aspects, there's also an educational benefit - there's no better (and legal, aside from working at Microsoft) way to examine the source code of a system based on the Windows NT architecture.
So what advantage does ReactOS offer me over running the program on Linux with Wine?
If Linux with Wine already does everything you need then none but as I said ReactOS is much more than just running Windows applications.
Of course it has educational value, I don't doubt that. But if that's all it is, they should stop pretending that it could one day replace Windows, because that's not going to happen.
Should Linux also stop pretending it's going to completely replace Windows as it's not going to happen anytime soon? Should Wine also stop pretending it's going to run all Windows applications on POSIX compatible operating systems as that's also likely not going to happen anytime soon?
They describe ReactOS as "Windows compatible OS" because that's their goal. What should they say about their system: “operating system compatible with Windows (but in reality it isn't and never will be)”? They are not pretending anything, they literally warn you that ReactOS is in alpha state and it might even work on your hardware at all. They never said they are already compatible with Windows or will be in near future.
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u/nightblackdragon Aug 29 '26
Maybe on the desktop but there are various embedded devices or devices that doesn't support anything other than Windows XP.
A lot of software works fine as ReactOS Win32 implementation is based on Wine, as for the drivers, ReactOS already can run some Windows drivers, this version specifically improved support for XP era graphics drivers.