It only took them 30 years! 👏

ngl i thought it was dead

Is this the shambling remains of lindows?

Yes but it is still very impressive in my opinion no where near close to like being something a common user would ever use but I love their dedication to it still.

Yeah but when will they get DOOM running on the screens in Half Life on Windows in Linux?

Na, Lindows was just Linux that looked like Windows (kinda). ReactOS is FOSS Windows, no Linux kernel involved. It's an original kernel which apes Windows as closely as possible. The idea is that hopefully, some day, it'll be a full drop-in replacement for Windows with full support for Windows software, no compatibility layer (e.g. no Wine) required.

Interesting. I applaud the efforts ... though I do find myself wondering if that energy could have been focused on a more unified front for those compatibility layers instead. Backwards compatibility certainly would be useful but I feel like modern compatibility (parity) is a sisyphian task. You'd be eternally chasing a standard that a company is setting for you. The exact company with a history of file format and code changes to fuck with efforts identical to this. You'd never be able to pull ahead.

I'll have to go read up on the project. I'm interested in the project itself - but deeply curious if they have addressed that elephant.

TBF this project started decades ago before proton and a lot of compatibility layers became mainstream.

Also, ReactOS is closely tied to helping WINE and always has been, so it's not a complete waste. It'll just never actually emulate Windows in any stable way.

It was until Putin gave the creator the thumbs up.

This point comes up a lot with obscure and seemingly pointless open source projects.
It doesn't have to be useful. Let the devs do what they like with their lives, they don't owe anyone their free time.

No shade being thrown at the devs. Ive chased many a "what if" myself. I certainly have opinions but what someone does with their time is their business.

I wouldnt necessarily classify this project as pointless as the research has value. I simply was making observations and asking questions as an outsider looking at a project I wasnt familiar with conversationally.

waiting for the day they migrate to nt 6.0

Ive had some time to look at the timelines and that was definitely in the "era" of Microsoft making poor choices for the end user. Apparently lindows rebranded (who knew lol) and also crawled into existence around the same period.

I think, for good reason, people should be concerned with the direction of any consolidating market. I believe the devs were correct to have the foresight to anticipate this eventual reality.

Also, ReactOS is closely tied to helping WINE and always has been, so it's not a complete waste. It'll just never actually emulate Windows in any stable way.

Exactly what I was curious about considering the goals are similar and could benifit from shared knowledge. Very cool.

As far as the emulation layer discussion goes - I'm not so sure it will matter in the years to come. It needs to simply provide a 'good enough' bridge to other platforms to allow a critical mass to form. After that point those platforms can stand alone as a viable alternative and grow from there. Example: VMWare debacle.

Lindows "rebranded" because Microsoft sued them for trademark infringement. They've been "Linspire" since... 2004, I think?

First off, as others have said, Wine and ReactOS benefit each others' development.

But second, for those folks, particularly less-tech-savvy ones, who feel like they "have to" use Windows for one reason or another, "Windows except FOSS" seems a much easier and more tempting option than "Linux but tries to be like Windows". I do think that argument is a bit less compelling than it once was, but for sure, if ReactOS was "done" and fully compatible with Windows 11 or whatever, my mother, for instance, would be beyond thrilled to switch to that. As it is, she's kinda sorta starting to come around to the idea of using Linux maybe at some point, but she fears the learning curve. (And I very much don't blame her for that.)

But can it run Crysis?

People who do stuff like this often can't redirect their focus at will. They get passionate about one specific thing and do great work for that. You try to steer them towards something more useful, they end up losing the passion completely.

I'd like to think that there's a certain tipping point after which most things will fall into place and stuff will just generally work apart from the occasional bug or breakage.

I hope. Look, it feels like a pipe dream that's not meant to happen, but I have to commend them for their tenacity and hard work. And if it does all fall into place, I'll be happy and will celebrate with the devs that's for sure. I'm just wondering if it will ever be in a usable state, if they're wasting their time on something that simply will not work or work well enough. Only time will tell, but honestly, it's starting to feel like they might pull it off.

iirc reactos research benefits wine as well

Even if they never do, my understanding is that they have worked with developers for tools like WINE, so even if they never truly finish the project, they've already made some meaningful contributions just by furthering those projects.

That's true, so it's not in vain at all.