Thursday, September 26, 2013

OPERATOR SYSTEMS - ReactOS Alternative to Microsoft Windows


ReactOS alternative to Microsoft Windows

ReactOS® is a free open source operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows NT® architecture (Windows versions such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 are built on Windows NT architecture).  Written completely from scratch, ReactOS is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the UNIX architecture.

The main goal of the ReactOS® project is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows.  This will allow your Windows® applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system.  Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows® would find using ReactOS straightforward.  The ultimate goal of ReactOS® is to allow you to use it as alternative to Windows® without the need to change software you are used to.

ReactOS 0.3.15 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

As the quote above, this is under development but sounds good considering it is FREE and the developers MAY be more responsive to users than Microsoft.  Also may be more stable in the long run, not having new versions every few years.

Here is a link to their "Missing ReactOS Functionality" page.

My desktop system is WinXP SP3.  I do not like any of the newer versions of Windows which I consider glitzy resource hogs.

We should keep an eye out on progress of ReactOS.  I may give it a try AFTER I can be sure in will install OVER my WinXP and all applications (especially my antivirus) and games will work.

ReactOS Wikipedia

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