[pjmlp]

Only if it keeps being relevant for the computing model.

Case in point, ReactOS is far behind what Windows 11 is capable of, and this not taking into account the ARM and CoPilot+ PC hardware changes in modern motherboards.

It is nonetheless relevant, especially in the presence of escape mechanisms to oppressive governments, and digital sovereignty.

[loloquwowndueo]

> ReactOS is far behind what Windows 11 is capable of

lol I guess, it doesn’t annoy you with endless ads and pop ups, doesn’t try to steal your data and passwords, doesn’t force you to buy an entire new computer just to run it. Far behind indeed.

[pjmlp]

You joke, yet there are plenty of missing actually useful features, some of which even Linux lags behind with exception of Android/Linux.

[DaiPlusPlus]

I challenge you to name an actually useful feature that was added in Windows 11 and not present in any previous release.

Difficulty: QoL features added to undo the effects of bad design changes in Win11 don’t count, such as “compact view” in Windows 11 File Explorer.

[pjmlp]

Easy, one use adminstration tokens, useful to anyone that cares about security.

Here is another one, enforced application sandboxing and signing, comming up in a future update this year, year another useful one for security.

Yet another one, ability to actually use Windows containers without having the same kernel version between host and guest, useful for Windows developers.

Three for the price of one, there you go.

[joveian]

Eh, the real genius of Windows 11 that Linux lags behind is the seriously first rate emoji picker :).

[HappMacDonald]

I would be happier if it really could search and pick every unicode character. I would love to be able to nab "not equals", "approximately equals", "supsercript 2", etc.

[Llamamoe]

You can configure rofimoji to work really well and off a keyboard shortcut into any application.

[hilbert42]

"Case in point, ReactOS is far behind what Windows 11 is capable of, …"

More importantly, as I've mentioned, ReactOS is not stable nor reliable enough to even use as an offline O/S sans the Win 11 dross.

If these stability/compatibility issues were fixed then it'd develop a reputation for being reliable which would lead to further development work.

Unfortunately for everyone except Microsoft this is not the case.

[justinclift]

Heh, wouldn't it be funny if some of the EU gov's decided to sponsor ReactOS for another/future pathway away from Redmond. :)

[pjmlp]

It could be, but I would rather see SuSE on that, or similar.

[mschuster91]

> It is nonetheless relevant, especially in the presence of escape mechanisms to oppressive governments, and digital sovereignty.

Not just for that. There's an awful, awful lot of ancient embedded hardware running machinery sometimes worth dozens of millions of dollars, and it's running even more ancient software. Siemens, for example, recently searched for people capable of (and willing to) working with Windows 3.11 [1], presumably to deal with the HMI displays for locomotive/train drivers.

When dealing with hardware or software that has lifecycles measured in half-centuries, bridges to allow modern tooling to work with it are really, really important.

[1] https://www.heise.de/news/Deutsche-Bahn-sucht-Admin-fuer-Win...

[HappMacDonald]

Working with Windows 3.11 isn't even the problem there though, that is only a symptom. You could get one of the original authors of 3.11 in there and all they would get told by Siemens would be "no, you can't touch anything. You can't change anything, you can't install a new piece of software, even one designed for Windows 3.11. You can't fix this obvious bug, even if you are Chesteron. The absolute only thing we will allow you to do is to salve the very shallowest possible symptom that we never noticed until this week, and you can only do that by adding a new thing completely outside of the scope of everything that already exists and make the ball of pain larger."

[reactordev]

There are millions of Windows 95 embedded in industrial or government machines. Millions.

[pjmlp]

Doing stuff that an ESP 32 would suffice.

[reactordev]

There are at least 8 layers of bureaucracy between the ones who need it, and the ones who make it.

[dcrazy]

Yeah but instead of rewriting it, dropping in a supported OS that continues to receive security fixes is a very attractive alternative.

[woctordho]

It's far easier to port ReactOS than Windows to ARM and other new CPU ISAs.

[pjmlp]

Windows is already there.

[woctordho]

Sure, but it doesn't imply it's easier.

[pjmlp]

How is ReactOS easier to port than Windows, when Windows is already ported?