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ReactOS 0.4.0

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First post, by robertmo

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ReactOS 0.4.0
https://reactos.org/project-news/reactos-040-released

Reply 1 of 56, by Stiletto

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If memory serves, they modified DOSBox to serve as their OS's NTVDM replacement not too long ago... I should go and look at the sourcecode for that component to see what they've done.

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

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Reply 2 of 56, by gerwin

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.
ReactOS 0.4.0 User-Centric Improvements

  • ext2 read/write and NTFS read support
  • New explorer shell and theme support
  • SerialATA support
  • Sound support
  • USB support
  • VirtualBox and VirtualPC support
  • Wireless networking

That is an impressive feature list. Glad to see it improve. I read somewhere that only the new memory manager would not be ready in time for this release.

Stiletto wrote:

If memory serves, they modified DOSBox to serve as their OS's NTVDM replacement not too long ago... I should go and look at the sourcecode for that component to see what they've done.

Here is a recent article about their NTVDM, though it does not say about using DosBox code.
http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/y … ss-ntvdm-part-2
Also not a word about the downside of full software emulation: slower. Though for the current desktop systems this is not a problem.

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Reply 3 of 56, by keropi

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It seems such a good idea that I decided to try it... so I downloaded the live-cd, boots and gets stuck on "Installing devices".
OK I thought, whatever... I got the install-cd and gave it a spin. But nooooo - it doesn't support USB keyboard on setup (trying it on my i7-2600k machine with ms sidewinder kb/mouse). Does it even work with "modern" hardware? Do I have to dig out old ps2 input devices or try it with an older system or something?

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Reply 4 of 56, by konc

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keropi wrote:

It seems such a good idea that I decided to try it... so I downloaded the live-cd, boots and gets stuck on "Installing devices".
OK I thought, whatever... I got the install-cd and gave it a spin. But nooooo - it doesn't support USB keyboard on setup (trying it on my i7-2600k machine with ms sidewinder kb/mouse). Does it even work with "modern" hardware? Do I have to dig out old ps2 input devices or try it with an older system or something?

Same here... was happy about that "VirtualBox and VirtualPC support" bullet point, but it didn't even boot after installation on VirtualBox. Blue screen

Reply 5 of 56, by gerwin

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konc wrote:

Same here... was happy about that "VirtualBox and VirtualPC support" bullet point, but it didn't even boot after installation on VirtualBox. Blue screen

Using Portable-VirtualBox_v4.3.28, with the Windows 2000 profile.
ReactOS-0.4.0-Live.iso - Works, but runs from CD of course.
ReactOS-0.4.0.iso- Got stuck at the blue desktop background screen too, but after a reset and leaving all system/user/time-configuration at default; it worked:

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Reply 6 of 56, by gerwin

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I reinstalled without the half baked dutch localization. I got the sound driver working; manually installing the AC97 package from the package manager. But the NTVDM does not have Sound Blaster emulation yet. Also DirectX Sound and Music is not included. The DirectX mouse handling is broken AFAIK.

So you can use this 0.4.0 release for gaming if you don't care for Sound and the mouse... 😖 or we can be patient for future versions.

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Reply 7 of 56, by Stiletto

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gerwin wrote:
. […]
Show full quote

.

Stiletto wrote:

If memory serves, they modified DOSBox to serve as their OS's NTVDM replacement not too long ago... I should go and look at the sourcecode for that component to see what they've done.

Here is a recent article about their NTVDM, though it does not say about using DosBox code.
http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/y … ss-ntvdm-part-2
Also not a word about the downside of full software emulation: slower. Though for the current desktop systems this is not a problem.

You are quite correct, I think I may have misunderstood the synopsis on the matter I had read weeks ago. I think "like DOSBox" must've thrown me. First bits of code I looked at just now passed smell test, but I'm cramped for time so it wasn't a thorough check. It also doesn't matter since the code in question is GPL as is DOSBox. My apologies for the baseless accusation.
https://svn.reactos.org/svn/reactos/trunk/rea … ems/mvdm/ntvdm/

"I see a little silhouette-o of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you
do the Fandango!" - Queen

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Reply 8 of 56, by F2bnp

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Itching to try this one out. I was actually wondering if development was active not too long ago and now we get some really great news. Realistically speaking, what kind of hardware requirements does this version have? Will it run comfortably on a fast Pentium 4 and even slower?

Reply 9 of 56, by Jo22

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I'm glad they released a new version!
Stability is still questionable, though. Still a lot of glitches in there..
Oh, and I miss Win16 support. Otherwise, it's nice to see they're improving.
Especially their use of an emulation backend for their NTVDM is a wise choise, I think. No worry about V86 quirks.
Ironically the real NTVDM had an emulation equivalent, aswell,
but it wasn't used outside some RISC platforms (Mips, Alpha, PowerPC).
Imagine MS would have had ported it to X86-64 - DOS/Win3x apps would probably still run.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 10 of 56, by Jo22

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F2bnp wrote:

Itching to try this one out. I was actually wondering if development was active not too long ago and now we get some really great news. Realistically speaking, what kind of hardware requirements does this version have? Will it run comfortably on a fast Pentium 4 and even slower?

Last time I checked it ran on my P166 MMX. 😀

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 11 of 56, by leileilol

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Even though it's the point I still don't like the uncanny identical bootleg knockoff feeling of the interface, like some menus are almost downright identical save for the unfitting Bnome3-ish icon set. It's so dangerously close, it could pass off as a counterfeit Windows, save for a few name, branding, cursor and icon adjustments.

Implementing the whole windows subsystem from scratch is one thing, painting by the numbers is another. FFS they even have their own "Is this copy of ReactOS legal?" help item in explorer.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 12 of 56, by mr_bigmouth_502

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gerwin wrote:
. ReactOS 0.4.0 User-Centric Improvements […]
Show full quote

.
ReactOS 0.4.0 User-Centric Improvements

  • ext2 read/write and NTFS read support
  • New explorer shell and theme support
  • SerialATA support
  • Sound support
  • USB support
  • VirtualBox and VirtualPC support
  • Wireless networking

That is an impressive feature list. Glad to see it improve. I read somewhere that only the new memory manager would not be ready in time for this release.

Stiletto wrote:

If memory serves, they modified DOSBox to serve as their OS's NTVDM replacement not too long ago... I should go and look at the sourcecode for that component to see what they've done.

Here is a recent article about their NTVDM, though it does not say about using DosBox code.
http://community.reactos.org/index.php/news/y … ss-ntvdm-part-2
Also not a word about the downside of full software emulation: slower. Though for the current desktop systems this is not a problem.

Welcome to 2002, ReactOS! 🤣

In all seriousness though, that's quite a significant list of features. It just goes to show how hard the ReactOS team have been working to make this a viable OS. I honestly can't wait for the day where ReactOS can replace Windows for most users altogether, especially since M$ have been driving Windows into the ground with all the telemetry and forced updates and other stupid bullshit.

The one thing that REALLY impresses me about ReactOS however, is its NTVDM implementation. I like the fact that it doesn't rely on V86 mode, and as such can be ported to platforms other than 32-bit x86. It makes me wonder if maybe a full x86 emulator is in the works for things like the ARM version of the OS. It would be cool if they could set it up so that things that merely use Win32 API functions can be handled natively, while the x86 emulation is used only for things that absolutely require it.

I think it would also be cool if they made it POSIX compliant as well, with support for things like the X Windows system. Now, I know the idea is to make it a Windows clone, and as such it will never be entirely *nix-ey, but a working *nix subsystem would kick ass and make it easier to port other open source programs to the OS. Heck, maybe a clever hacker could port WINE (aww, I made a lame pun 🤣) and use it for running particularly troublesome apps.

Inbuilt sandboxing would be another great thing to have in ReactOS, from both a security and stability standpoint. I'm thinking you could do it in such a way that each program you installed could have its own registry, and you'd be able restrict or allow access to certain things on a program by program basis. Or, maybe you could even run applications in a self-contained bubble with all their own libraries and whatnot, kind of like a chroot jail on Linux.

As far as memory management goes, I'm not sure how possible this is, but I'd like to see them adopt a more Linux-like model where the swapfile only gets touched whenever it is needed, and physical RAM is used as much as possible.

Finally, I'd like to see support for LiveUSB persistence, possibly with a UEFI key lifted from Ubuntu so that you can run it on systems that have SecureBoot enabled. I've been dreaming for years of having a Windows-compatible operating system that I could take around with me on a USB and run on different computers, and since ReactOS is open source without Micro$oft's bullshit licensing model, I think this may actually be possible.

Anyway, enough rambling. I have all sorts of crazy, outlandish ideas I'd like to see the ReactOS team implement, but as of right now they should focus on just making it a solid, Windows-compatible OS.

Reply 13 of 56, by Jo22

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Hi, I just wanted to say that ReactOS 0.4.2 was released a few day ago..
Has it anyone testet yet ?

Source: https://www.reactos.org/project-news/reactos-042-released

(Btw, I accidently postet this news in the other ReactOS thread, but deleted it afterwards. Hope that's okay, I thought this thread is better suited for 0.4 related news than the general ReactOS thread.)

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 14 of 56, by gerwin

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Jo22 wrote:

Hi, I just wanted to say that ReactOS 0.4.2 was released a few day ago..
Has it anyone testet yet ?

I had 0.4.2 release candidate 1 installed in virtualbox before. But since you mentioned the normal 0.4.2 being available I installed that one yesterday.

In the brief time I used it, the one thing I noticed is the new folder tree view in explorer. Also my earlier installs had trouble to bootup sometimes, or had crashes, but so far I haven't seen that in 0.4.2.
The explorer file view settings are still not remembered. The 'list' and 'details' views still have a problem when selecting files with the mouse.

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Reply 15 of 56, by Jo22

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Thanks for the testing and your feedback!
I haven't tested it yet, but I will as soon as possible.

And yeah, that explorer.. It is still very buggy! 🤣 In previous versions it wasn't much of a help.
In fact, I prefered to use the command line instead, because I was afraid of data corruption.
A few years ago I even installed ReactOS on a dedicated PC. It was a Pentium 166, I think.

I wanted to use that machine right beside my soldering station for electronics stuff and for programming.
But sadly VB6 didn't properly run on it, so it was of little use for me (VB5 kinda did, just like old Delphi)..
But on the positive side, there were a few programs that worked quite nicely, almost bug-free.

Wait, here's a little -albeit outdated- list : EasyISO, FoxitReader 2, IrfanView 4.23, VLC 2.0.1, ICProg, Firefox 2.0,
MixW2 (radio stuff), FlashPlayer 9, ShockWave 10.1, 7zip 9.25, Zemu (z80 emulator), wglgears (OpenGL gearwheels demo)

It seems to me that smaller programs written by individuals do run better on ReactOS than commercial bloatware.
So I think ReactOS can really be useful for smaller projects, if paired with well written software.
Basically as a free runtime for self-written programs.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 16 of 56, by Jorpho

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Jo22 wrote:

So I think ReactOS can really be useful for smaller projects, if paired with well written software.
Basically as a free runtime for self-written programs.

Anyone who needs something like that would probably be much better off with WinPE or Linux, I think.

Reply 17 of 56, by Jo22

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Jorpho wrote:
Jo22 wrote:

So I think ReactOS can really be useful for smaller projects, if paired with well written software.
Basically as a free runtime for self-written programs.

Anyone who needs something like that would probably be much better off with WinPE or Linux, I think.

Uhm, perhaps. I thought of things like robots, a homemade wheater station, or a talking toaster.. 😁
All these things could be controlled by a small VB/Delphi application.
And ReactOS has low enough requirements to run well on any x86 based single board computer.
Like those based around that Vortex86EX chip.
Sure, you could use Linux instead, but VB6 is such a friendly environment for writing prototype sofware
(-> rapid application development, or just RAD). The only thing comparable here would be either Gambas or Lazarus, I guess.
(I know of several others, but they are nolonger supported. And Kylix is dead. rip.) Win9x or XP would certainly also run on these
breadboard computers, but that would't fit the spirit of beeing free and independend from MS.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 18 of 56, by gerwin

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Jo22 wrote:

And yeah, that explorer.. It is still very buggy! 🤣 In previous versions it wasn't much of a help.
In fact, I prefered to use the command line instead, because I was afraid of data corruption.

I wouldn't describe their current explorer that way. It was actually rewritten since, and is now called 'explorer new'. It seems reliable, but rather bare.
The mouse file selection bug in some view modes: it seems to select the proper files, but also adds the topmost file to the selection. The view mode is not remembered because that functionality is not written yet.

It is interesting to follow the project progress on 'Jira'. When a bug report for a windows program is reported, the developers usually get it fixed and running within a week. So compatibility is progressing. But a lot of functionality is still missing. Some examples of things still on the todo list are here: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of … Code_2016_Ideas
Data corruption issues are the worst of course. I do not know in what degree such issues are still there, but some mentioned the memory manager to be rather crappy?

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Reply 19 of 56, by gerwin

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ReactOS 0.4.3 has been released.

The ReactOS Project is pleased to announce the release of another incremental update, version 0.4.3. This would be fourth such r […]
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The ReactOS Project is pleased to announce the release of another incremental update, version 0.4.3. This would be fourth such release the project has made this year, an indication we hope of the steady progress that we have made. Approximately 342 issues were resolved since the release of 0.4.2, with the oldest dating all the way back to 2006 involving text alignment.

Notable in this release is the switching to a new winsock library that had been started several years ago by Alex Ionescu and imported into trunk by Ged Murphy. Even after it was brought in however significant work remained to be done before it could replace the old winsock library, work which Peter Hater and Andreas Maier undertook. Their effort has now reached a point wherein the team feels it is ready to supplant the original library and 0.4.3 serves as the first release to incorporate it. As the winsock library underpins effectively all network operations in user mode applications, and its improvement should be a significant boon for ReactOS' compatibility with such programs as the Good old Games (GoG) client and newer versions of the Python runtime.

Of perhaps more interest to vintage game fans, improvements to ReactOS' implementation of NTVDM has seen several more DOS-era games now running successfully. Strategy fans in particular should enjoy a trip down memory lane with the likes of Age of Empires and Command & Conquer.

Behind the scenes the team has made a major effort to flesh out the test suite, ranging from memory related functionality to the windows shell API. Work also continues on the aptly named Another Rewrite of the Memory Manager Module (ARM3) with the initial implementation of sections support, the last major piece of functionality before it can completely replace the old memory manager.

A more detailed list of changes can be found on the changelog. Those seeking to download the install CD and liveCD respectively can follow the links.

Be aware that there is no Sound Blaster emulation yet...

2016-09-29, Point 1: Status Reports
[TheFlash]: He's still working on both the Sound Blaster driver and NTVDM VESA support, but right now he has to finish his M.Sc. thesis, so there will be a delay.

(unofficial) changelog of 0.4.3

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