caught in shifting targets and that halt for code review, and much delayed https://reactos.org/wiki/0.5.0 (2018??), a noble and worthy project, but at the moment, Linux/Wine or Linux Steam Proton are probably more capable of running applications reliably

Matth79 wrote on 2026-02-01, 15:56:

caught in shifting targets and that halt for code review, and much delayed https://reactos.org/wiki/0.5.0 (2018??), a noble and worthy project, but at the moment, Linux/Wine or Linux Steam Proton are probably more capable of running applications reliably

Not much of a happy birthday wishing. Ever heard of this one, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_effect

Still pretty useless when compared to just using Wine in Linux.

Apples and oranges. 🙂
ReactOS is meant to be binary compatible to Windows. It can use NT drivers, too.

Not *entirely*.

ROS shares lots of code with WINE, and vice versa.

Theoretically, ROS will be just as capable as WINE as the ROS kernel space matures.

I always found the idea of this interesting. I remember reading about it 15 years ago and hoping they would keep at it. It really is commendable that they're still going after 30 years.

I have to ask though... if they were to somehow get it to the point of having near perfect compatibility with Windows x86 and x64 programs, wouldn't it end up susceptible to a lot of Windows malware and exploits without any of Microsoft's resources to help get security flaws patched?

I know it wouldn't be quite that simple since it is fundamentally not the same code... but I can't help but think that this would be a less than ideal situation.

Quick update. There's a HaD article about it.
https://hackaday.com/2026/02/05/three-decades-of-reactos/

The currently one and only comment says: Over just the past week, ReactOS has been making some insane improvements to the graphics drivers, the Nvidia drivers up to the GTX 9xx series are now working, with 2D and 3D acceleration.

Holy shit, is that true?