[mindcrime]

The stuff you posted seems to be pretty ancient, so I wouldn't read much into that in and of itself. That said, there have always been questions about whether or not MS would eventually go after ReactOS on some sort of IP grounds. And as far as I can tell, the general consensus has always been that that would never happen unless ReactOS crossed a certain threshold of popularity / usage. So really, nobody knows. Probably so far ReactOS is still so niche and small that even if MS thought they had grounds to pursue some sort of legal action, they just don't bother. Or maybe not: maybe MS have pored over the code meticulously, line by line, and determined that ReactOS don't infringe anything. In the end, there's really no easy way for those of us on the outside to know.

Anyway, does it even matter? If you want to use it, just use it. The chances that Microsoft would start pursuing individual end users of ReactOS - even in the worst case - strike me as approximately 0%. They can't even stop piracy of actual MS Windows, for crying out loud.

The one exception would be if you're thinking of building some sort of commercial product on top of ReactOS. There you might want to take a pause and do more research, since there is that chance that your very product - if successful enough - could become the "thing" that draws the attention of the Eye of Saur.. erm, Microsoft.