Windows Killer??

You can swear by your Linux or Unix or Mac, but there’s no denying the fact that Windows is the desktop king, simply because its damn easy to use and has more choice of useful softwares(both free & commercial) than any other operating system!!

But what if someone doesn’t have the $199 to get a Windows XP license? Going for one of the free linux distros or a pirated copy of windows is the only choice? :think: That might’ve held true till sometime back, but that’s gonna change now. Behold ReactOS, an open source & free operating system compatible with Microsoft Windows XP. :eyebrow: Its not a clone of Windows mind you, it has been built from the ground up in the C language along with some parts done in C++ with only GNU GPL & similarly licensed code. Its aimed at achieving complete binary compatibility with both applications & device drivers that run on Windows XP. :applause: As the description on the ReactOS website states:

The ReactOS project is dedicated to making Free Software available to everyone by providing a ground-up implementation of a Microsoft Windows XP compatible operating system. ReactOS aims to achieve complete binary compatibility with both applications and device drivers meant for NT and XP operating systems, by using a similar architecture and providing a complete and equivalent public interface.

Though still in its infancy, this operating system promises a bright future. Currently at v0.2.9, it can already run some of Windows tools like Notepad, RegEdit, Cmd.exe, OpenOffice.org 1.x(partially), AbiWord, Mozilla FireFox & some games like Quake & Quake II. OpenGL is also said to run though with a few minor problems. :shh:

Currently the work is a bit slowed down as following allegations of copying source code from the leaked Windows source in January by someone called Hartmut Birr, the project coordinators decided on a full source audit to look for possible non GPL compatible code & replacing it with GPL compatible code. This might take up quite a bit of time, as of now the ReactOS website shows 15% completion of the source code audit.

So finally Microsoft will have some real competition right on their own turf from an operating system that will have the same set of features as Windows & will be running the same applications and drivers!! :tup:

I just can’t wait to try this operating system, so I’ll download & try it out as soon as I have some spare time!!