ReactOS is a free and open source operating system, is based on the Windows NT architecture reflected in the best design concept.
ReactOS it is written entirely from scratch, it is not based on Linux system and it has nothing in common with the UNIX architecture.
The purpose of the ReactOS project is provide a binary compatible operating system with Windows.
This allows Windows applications and drivers to function as they do on Windows systems.
In addition, the perception of the Windows operating system is also used, so when you are familiar with the Windows user interface, you can use ReactOS directly.
The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow people to use it as an alternative to Windows, without having to replace the software they are familiar with.
Therefore, it is important to highlight and understand at this point that ReactOS is not a system that uses the Linux Kernel, it is a system created from scratch that follows the FLOSS development model as an alternative to Windows.
System development started as a Windows 95 clone, which was discontinued in early 1998 as ReactOS, and has continued with the gradual incorporation of features from the latest versions of Windows.
ReactOS It is mainly written in the C programming language, with some elements, such as ReactOS Explorer and the sound stack, written in the C ++ language.
The project relies on MinGW for compilation, and its development is contributed by submitting patches to its components.
The new ReactOS Release Candidate is now available
It has been more than a month since ReactOS 0.4.9 was released, while the next version is beginning to be formulated.
ReactOS 0.4.10 has incorporated configuration improvements, memory management improvements, x64 architecture fixes, various Win32 subsystem additions and early work with FAT32 statistics support.
Btrfs boot support has also been merged to provide support in the next version of ReactOS. The new RC version of ReactOS 0.4.10 is available for testing.
React OS 0.4.10 has merged work for configuration improvements, memory management improvements, x64 architecture fixes.
In addition to various Win32 subsystem additions and early work on FAT32 statistics support, various shell enhancements and additions to many of the key DLLs have been added to this new RC.
As well as syncing user mode DLLs against what is found in Wine-Staging 3.9.
Also important to note that ReactOS 0.4.10 has worked on Btrfs boot and has merged - this was started for Google Summer of Code 2018 and now with this next version of ReactOS you can use Btrfs and boot from there.
Of the main updates that can be highlighted in this new RC version of the system we can find:
- The main work was merged for the configuration of the first stage.
- Preparation for future GUI configuration.
- File systems on disks are now detected.
- NT 5.x and ReactOS installations are now detected.
- Various fixes to make MM act like it does on Windows.
- I work for pagination support.
- Various fixes for x64.
- Reviewed token management and fixed some bugs.
- Fixed several possible BSoDs.
- Implemented class for system firmware functions.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Git from running properly.
- Fixed an issue that caused the controller to leak.
Download ReactOS 0.4.10
Si want to get this new release candidateYou can go to the official website of the project and in its download section you will find the link to download it.
Or if you prefer, this latest candidate version of ReactOS 0.4.10 is available for download from Source Forge. The link is this.
At the end of your download you can burn the image on a DVD or a USB for the latter I can recommend using Etcher.
ReactOS has always seemed like a good proposal to me ... Although its development is slow, it is constant and the team of developers never lose heart, despite the fact that creating an Operating System from scratch is a titanic task ...
I sincerely believe that the time will come soon (in a few years) when ReactOS will become a viable alternative for both Windows and Linux (the former being more feasible), and I believe it because ReactOS has two great advantages:
- It is free software
- The correctly implemented NT architecture is extremely flexible and has great potential.
Microsoft has already given a small sample of what Windows subsystems are capable of (Install the Ubuntu subsystem on Windows 10), however, the open source community will know how to fully exploit those capabilities.