[Intro]
There are a huge number of operating systems in the world
Windows
Linux
FreeBSD
macOS
Haiku and other... This list is very huge.
But few people probably know that there is an operating system that looks like Windows, but is not its exact clone.
Yes, today we will talk about ReactOS - an international project of free and free open source OS
Let's talk about how it works on a real computer, how it works with drivers and what problems I encountered during testing.
Project started is beginning of 1996
The free software group developers has announced the start of the FreeWin95 project, whose goal was what?
Right! Developing a free clone, recently released at that time Windows 95.
Almost two years have passed since that moment, at the end of 1997 the project still did not bring any results.
But in 1998, the project changed its direction to cloning Windows NT and acquired a new name - ReactOS.
And in February 1998 the project began its work.
And many years later, the project is still at the alpha-testing stage.
I remember this system since version 0.3.x, and then this could hardly be installed on a real computer...
...and even more so, at that time she really loved to fall into the BSOD's for various reasons and at any time.
At the time of the making of this video (January 31), version 0.4.13 is already released, and nightly builds are numbered version 0.4.15, I decided to try to install it on a real computer.
But this computer has the following specs, you see them on the screen
So, well now that I have talked about the specs of our "experimental" PC, let's proceed with the installation and review.
System installation takes in two stages: text and graphical.
In the text stage, we will be asked to choose a language, also will tell you that this OS is at the stage of alpha testing, also we will be offered to choose a keyboard layout, display, create partition, and so on.
The graphical installation phase is very similar to the installation from Windows 2000.
Here offer to write us a username
choose the date and time, configure the network adapter, customize the theme and basically everything
Surprisingly, ReactOS installs and configures very quickly.
After all the settings, we have before us a ready operating system.
Overall, the system is very similar to Windows.
Clone after all :)
Start Menu
Window manage buttons
Paint
Control Panel
And Explorer
Everything here is almost exactly the same as in regular Windows system.
But still, while I was climbing the system, I noticed a lot of imperfections and "plugs" in the form of non-saved checkboxes and unlit buttons.
Now let's see how things are with the drivers.
[Drivers on ReactOS]
How are doing with drivers in ReactOS?
Bad.
The only drivers that have installed correctly and are working properly are the network card and the usb-hub, which is installed in the PCI.
The drivers were installed on the sound card successfully, but after reboots, the system comes out with a BSOD and it no longer starts, you need to completely reinstall the entire system.
The driver for the video adapter was also successfully installed, but just like with the sound card, during the reboot, the system also went into a BSOD and simply refused to start. In general, very "fun"...
So, since we have at least drivers for network card, let's see how the system works with the software and, in fact, try to go online
[Soft & Internet]
ReactOS has its own application directory where you can download and fast install applications that are compatible with ReactOS.
Thanks to the installed drivers on the network card, the catalog downloads data without problems.
The catalog itself is divided into many categories, which is even convenient. Programs are downloaded from various sources, I even saw links to installation files from the web archive.
Since modern Microsoft Office is unlikely to be installed here, the directory offers alternatives like OpenOffice and LibreOffice, which, surprisingly, work more or less normally on this OS.
The software, of course, works here with some minor bugs in the form of drawing elements. I've tested several programs as an example.
Winamp runs fine, but it won't play music, since we don't have a driver for a sound card, which is sad
IrfanView photo viewer works fine and opens any pictures without any problems
Total Commander, albeit with some bugs in drawing elements, starts up and works properly.
An analogue of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice 4 starts, but also has bugs with drawing elements.
Well, now we go online: here we used the Mypal browser version 27.9.4, the more modern version does not start here anymore.
And in principle, it works quite well on Yandex and Google sites.
But one has only to go to the heavier web-site…. How the system simply starts to very slow, and the CPU clearly starts to up at 100%
And now, the summary of all this video
So, the clone is even not bad and compared to 0.3.14 version, which I tested - the progress is huge, even if the development is slow.
Many will ask me: why is it needed at all?
And to be honest, it's hard for me to answer this question myself. Therefore, you can express your opinion in the comments.
That's all. Thanks for watching, see you :)
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