Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Mark Kent on Friday 21 September 2007 09:23 : \____
>
>> The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Mark Kent
>>><mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> wrote
>>> on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:45:34 +0100
>>><u4aas4-339.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>> [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>> Verily I say unto thee, that Mark Kent spake thusly:
>>>>>> [H]omer <spam@xxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>>>> Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
>>>>>
>>>>>>>> How to install 145 operating systems on one PC
>>>>>>> http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=147959
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Nutter! :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've just had a look and I'm slightly disappointed - no cpm86 and no
>>>>>> netware and no xenix... ;-)
>>>>>
>>>>> He also missed some current ones like QNX, SkyOS, AROS, Haiku, Menuet,
>>>>> Syllable, and of course GNU/Hurd.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It's amazing how many X86 operating systems Microsoft have managed to
>>>> kill so far. Still, they've not managed to kill the BSDs, nor have they
>>>> managed to kill Linux or the Hurd. I'll wait and see for ReactOS!
>>>>
>>>
>>> ReactOS looks like an interesting venture; they claim
>>> "complete binary compatibility" with both NT/XP
>>> applications and device drivers. Presumably, this
>>> includes some of the flaws -- the "shatter message" flaw
>>> being the only obvious one. It is declared alpha but a
>>> number of screenshots showing ReactOS running various
>>> Windows-intended games and applications (including MS
>>> Office 2003, Quake, and Unreal Tournament) are available.
>>>
>>> (The TuxPaint snapshot is slightly embarrassing. :-P :-) )
>>>
>>> http://www.reactos.org/
>>>
>>> My main concern is on a personal level: I have nVidia and
>>> Athlon hardware, and one hopes the Windows drivers therefor
>>> would work in ReactOS. Presumably they've taken care of
>>> that issue already; my hardware's not exactly esoteric.
>>>
>>> I'm assuming ReactOS is bootable through GRUB, much like
>>> Windows XP is today. A Unix build environment is available.
>>>
>>
>> It's a very interesting project, although I suspect that by the time its
>> really usable, the world might well have moved on to linux anyway, which
>> is quite similar to what happened to the FreeDOS Project. It's still
>> live and lively, but doesn't have the kudos it had back when most
>> people's best machine was a 486, and they still had old 386 and 286
>> machines around and needed a free OS. Similar story for the ELKS
>> project, too, I think.
>>
>> Still, I saw ReactOS running at a Linux expo a couple of years ago,
>> doing quake, but with emulated OpenGL.
>
> Some people say that the project has legal uncertainty. One of the project's
> leader (if not *the* leader) recently defected to Microsoft, IIRC.
>
> It makes you wonder if a virus-prone O/S is being built the open source way,
> with all the fundamental design flaws. This isn't a way of making fun of this
> project, which I admire by the way. It could allow you to run some old games
> like Sam & Max (that's what the pictures showed).
>
Personally, I've always thought that supporting linux would, in the
long-run, be more beneficial than trying to reverse-engineer Windows.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
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