[archfrog]

I was invited to join the ReactOS project about 10-12 years ago. I was part of it for, say, four days, then I left. I realized I could format my system drive with no warning or error. Then did a code review and realized that this project will never fly. I appreciate the motivation and goals, but I don't think you'll ever see a usable release of ReactOS. I am not against ReactOS, but the guys have way too few resources to ever be able to compete against Microsoft.

[projektfu]

I was interested in helping, too, and I set out to fix some obvious UI bugs, which turn out to be bugs in Wine. The Wine devs are not the same people, and they take a long time to review patches, if at all.

I thought the kernel aspects would be interesting, but they were really trying for driver-level compatibility with Windows NT, which means that they have to have essentially the same operating principles, etc. For some reason, I didn't want to make a line-for-line clone of Windows itself. After all, OSS people are always talking about how we would do it better.

If the goal is to be able to use the proprietary drivers supplied with some kind of hardware on a mostly OSS base, that's a decent goal. But if you want to be able to run it with complicated software that uses a lot of Windows APIs, etc., it's a fools errand.

However, I found it interesting how ReactOS could be used to teach Microsoft devs about Windows internals, even if it wasn't exactly the same. That sort of blew my mind. When you have a bunch of trade secrets, you don't really want the whole company to have access to the code, I guess, and so you benefit from having an open source clone to point to when you want to say how something like a Mutex is really implemented.

[sshine]

> the guys have way too few resources to ever be able to compete against Microsoft

I don't believe they're competing against Microsoft.

Gaining compatibility is as much a cooperation from ReactOS'es side.

But it's a losing battle to gain compatibility with Microsoft, because it's against Microsoft's ethos.

[brazzy]

They don't need to be able to compete. But they need to be able to keep up with the moving target that is "Windows on which you can run applications that many people want to run". And they don't have the resources for even that.

[archfrog]

I agree to that. I probably should have used the word "deliver" instead of the phrase "compete with Microsoft".

[stavros]

Isn't it a bit ironic that you left the project because it had too few resources?

[archfrog]

In a way, yes. But I left because I could see no future for the project due to the fact that I could format my system partition without getting warning and other similar issues. I have to say that I wasn't a coder or anything, only invited to test. And I quickly felt that there was no way this thing could be made to fly.

I admire the people behind ReactOS for their perseverance, I really wish I had just 1/10th of what they have.

[duxup]

I suppose that’s the chicken and egg problem of wanting to participate in something that you think will / has a chance to go where you hope it will.

[seba_dos1]

> the guys have way too few resources to ever be able to compete against Microsoft

Really? Are you absolutely sure, Sherlock? Did you know that the water is wet already or are you going to announce that in your next comment? ;)

The project has many other reasons-to-be and it would probably be very hard to find anyone seriously believing that "competing against Microsoft" is one of them.

[archfrog]

You should check your attitude. I didn't offend you, so don't offend me.

[seba_dos1]

No offense intended, I meant to playfully point out that you're stating the obvious, which has little relevance to the project and its goals.

[archfrog]

Okay, sorry, I misunderstood you :-)

As a matter of fact, I think it is a shame that so few support ReactOS. The idea is grand and think about how many resources people are willing to invest into using, say, Linux as an alternative to Windows (I love Linux, by the way): If those resources were spent on ReactOS, the project would be flying in 5-10 years or so. Then we could perhaps have a well-designed, compatible, free "Windows".