ReactOS 0.4.12

[tombert]

I ask here after every ReactOS release...does anyone here run ReactOS full time? Is it stable enough now to be used as a normal desktop OS? What does it give you over Wine?

I'm genuinely asking this; I'd like to get my grandmother off of Windows XP, and there was some piece of software (some weird productivity pack that she loves for some reason) that I couldn't get working with Wine.

[qubex]

I’ve used it to run some old Windows95 programs in a virtualised environment. I had easier ways of doing it but I decided to do it the hard way, and it isn’t a disappointing experience. Just an empty one.

[simonblack]

I still have a major problem with USB drivers. If I try to install Reactos on real hardware as opposed to a VirtualBox VM I can't even get it to accept keypresses from a USB keyboard. Which is extremely annoying because the primary boot message telling me to hit a key to boot from the CD does accept a keypress from the USB keyboard.

[amaccuish]

I've noticed it's got less crashy in virtualbox.

[beatgammit]

Have you tried Lutris? I've had problems with wine in the past, and Lutris seems to do better if there's a recipe for it. Granted, if it's sufficiently weird, there's probably not a recipe for it.

[moolcool]

What is the weird productivity pack?

[jancsika]

Can I use ReactOS as a CI runner in gitlab to build a Windows installer?

I'm currently using msys2 as the build environment-- does that run reliably on ReactOS? If not, is there another free build environment that runs reliably on ReactOS?

[jkirsteins]

I don’t know about ReactOS but you can use Docker with wine and WiX to build MSIs without a Windows server: https://github.com/suchja/wix-toolset

[wyldfire]

I always wondered why don't commercial CIs use ReactOS for build/test of windows software. I just assumed it wasn't stable enough yet?

[boyadjian]

I like this project very much. Every time there is a release, I test it on VirtualBox.

[turbo_fart_box]

What is ReactOS used for? I have been fascinated by it since I was a kid

[lotyrin]

ReactOS is a full OS so, unlike Wine, I believe you can load drivers that target Windows, which might be important if you have a piece of expensive hardware that only has official drivers for a legacy release?

[1023bytes]

I'm thinking running some legacy Windows applications in an embedded setting, like cash registers or kiosks.

[pcdoodle]

If there's a matching SBC for react someday, I could see this taking off immensely.

[faissaloo]

ReactOS for ARM is already a thing so it's not out if the question

[d33]

Is it just me or the release was rather... underwhelming? I failed to see any major progress in the device compatibility department - usually releases had at least a few such highlights.

[SyneRyder]

I haven't tried this release yet, but what they've described for this release - filesystem, font rendering, network drivers - are all issues that prevented me from using ReactOS more extensively in previous versions.

As someone who plays with music software, the new MIDI support looks interesting too, but I still think I'll be using Windows 10 and old Macs for my audio work.

[userulluipeste]

They mention Intel e1000 NIC driver, among others.

[jacobush]

Someone should combine it with the DOS POS software from the other day.

[viraptor]

That would be more of freedos territory, I believe. https://www.freedos.org/

[faissaloo]

Not much point given that DOS is libre software now

[tutfbhuf]

This is not to be confused with react the js framework.