ReactOS is an open-source OS striving for Windows compatibility. Something for Redmond to think about?
Posted on 01/22/2010 8:39:10 AM PST by ShadowAce
After a wave of operating system releases, it’s easy to become somewhat bored with the software side of computing. Windows 7 is here and looking like the ‘real’ Vista for many; Mac OS X 10.6, meanwhile, adds spit-shine to Leopard and gives its engine a good tuning too. In the Linux camp, distributions are taking regular steps forward in usability. But it’s all become rather routine; a case of incremental improvement rather than revolution.
So where’s all the real fun happening? Where are the radical new ideas, the Wild West code commits and the geekery and hackery that really drive innovation? Well, it’s all going on in the alternative operating system world. There are hundreds of projects in varying stages of development, from small, one-man-band shows to serious attempts at mounting an assault on the desktop.
We’re going to look at 10 of the most intriguing open-source operating systems in this brave new world. In most cases these are available as CD ISO images that you can burn to CD-Rs and boot up for testing if you fancy it. Alternatively, a simpler approach is to use a PC emulator such as VirtualBox or Qemu. With these and similar tools you can use ‘.iso’ image files (or ‘.flp’ floppy disc images) as virtual drives, so there’s no need to write any physical media.
Goal: Run Windows apps on an open-source OS
Out of all the operating systems we looked at, ReactOS is the one most likely to have Steve Ballmer tossing chairs. Originally named FreeWin95, the developers’ original goal was to create a completely open-source clone of, you guessed it, Windows 95. As time went on, however, there was little serious code to show and it was clear that the NT code base was the future for Microsoft.
In 1998, ReactOS rose out of the ashes of FreeWin95. Early progress was slow, but in 2004 version 0.2.0 arrived with a usable desktop and respectable, albeit very limited, Windows compatibility. Today, ReactOS is based around a home-grown kernel, but the project makes heavy use of the WINE libraries that are popular for running Windows applications on Linux.
ReactOS is available as a Live CD or as an installable OS. Right now, it looks and feels much like Windows 2000. Chunky widgets abound, and the Start menu, taskbar, window buttons and so forth are where you’d expect to see them.
ReactOS is an open-source OS striving for Windows compatibility. Something for Redmond to think about?
So, is it compatible? Chasing Microsoft’s vast APIs is no easy job, especially with so many undocumented calls to fathom out, but ReactOS does an impressive job. Firefox (with Flash), MSN Messenger, OpenOffice.org, StarCraft, Diablo 2, Quake III arena and many more apps run acceptably well, albeit with the occasional crash. Newer versions of MS Office and Visual Basic have troubles, though. It’s an ongoing job.
At this point you may be asking: ‘Why would Microsoft be worried about an OS that still needs a lot more work?’ Sure, right now ReactOS is no threat to Redmond. But for the tens of millions of people on the planet who use Windows as a springboard for a web browser, word processor and Solitaire, ReactOS could one day be a completely free drop-in replacement. If the project receives commercial backing in the future, Microsoft’s response will be interesting to watch.
Goal: Be a free reincarnation of BeOS
Sadly, BeOS never made the mainstream desktop impact that its supporters so passionately hoped for. This multimedia-focused operating system peaked in the late 1990s, but Microsoft’s stranglehold on the desktop prevented it from attaining anything more than relative obscurity.
Those days are gone, but the spirit of BeOS lives on. Haiku is named after BeOS’s error messages, many of which were quaintly fashioned in Japanese poetry format. Like BeOS, Haiku aims to be compatible with the small range of native BeOS programs. It’s available in raw hard drive image format, suitable for Qemu; CD-based versions are due out in the coming months.
Some may call the Haiku interface austere. For BeOS fans, though, it's supremely fast and neat.
Haiku’s interface is refreshingly minimal. Window title bars are reduced to small yellow tabs with a single close button, while the leaf button at the top-right of the desktop opens up a pseudo Start menu containing applications and settings. Even in an emulator, it runs at an impressive speed – see how many GLTeaPot demos you can run before the OS starts to stutter.
Even in its pre-alpha state, Haiku is shaping up well, with a wide range of included applications and utilities for desktop usage. When you open up a command line you may be surprised to find the Bash shell, although Haiku is in no way a Unix flavour. Of all the alternative OSes currently undergoing development, Haiku is the closest to achieving a stable, fully featured 1.0 release, although that day may still be a way off.
Goal: Recreate the glory days of AmigaOS
Astoundingly, AmigaOS lives on, despite Commodore’s bankruptcy 15 years ago. To its fans, the Amiga was revolutionary, offering graphics and sound in the late 1980s that put PCs to shame. It wasn’t without its problems, though: the lack of memory protection resulted in colossal crashes when a single app misbehaved. ‘Guru meditation’ error messages still haunt the memories of many.
AROS‘s aim is to provide an lightweight Amiga-compatible OS for modern machines, with source code compatibility with AmigaOS 3.1: in other words, if you have the source code for an old Amiga app, you can recompile it to run natively on AROS on an x86 chip.
AROS is blisteringly fast, just like the original AmigaOS, on a mere 7MHz M68K CPU.
Many versions of AROS are available, and you can even run it from inside Linux. For the best experience, though, grab the ‘pc-i386-boot-iso’ CD-R image and boot it. If you’re a former Amiga fan, you’ll probably well up when Wanderer, the Workbench replacement, loads up: aside from the modern lick of paint, it feels just like the glory days of AmigaOS. The filesystem layout is the same, right-clicking activates the menu at the top, and in the Extras/Demos folder you’ll find heaps of toys.
While AROS is undoubtedly attractive to those who pine after the great days of the Amiga, it’s an impressively swift and polished desktop OS in its own right. We don’t expect it to become massive overnight, but it’ll always have a hardcore army of fans.
Goal: Keep the Atari ST/TT/Falcon alive
Atari ST fans have their own equivalent in Aranym. It’s a virtual machine that emulates a 68040 CPU and various Atari hardware components, on top of which sits AFROS, an open-source version of the TOS/GEM operating system. You can download it as a program that runs on top of your normal operating system, or alternatively grab the Live CD.
AFROS is – to be blunt – supremely ugly, but then GEM was never known for its looks. Nevertheless, it’s a sprightly performer, and Atari users will have no problem finding their way around. A Windows-esque program menu has been shoehorned into the bottom side of the screen, and on the whole it faithfully recreates Atari’s 16-bit machines: if you were an Atari fan in the ’90s and still have some old floppies lying around, you might be able to get your old apps running.
Goal: Provide a user-friendly desktop OS
Thus far, all of the OSes we’ve looked at have been based on other OSes. Syllable, however, has been engineered from the ground up as a unique OS, with some inspiration from BeOS and AmigaOS. Originally known as AtheOS, the project development was forked after the lead developer effectively abandoned his work, and Syllable was born.
After booting from the Live CD, you can log in as the user ‘root’ with password ‘root’. The desktop is playfully colourful and clean: click the ‘S’ button at the top left to peruse the installed software. There’s the usual collection of desktop utilities, including a media player and WebKit- based browser. It’s impressively fast and has the potential to be an excellent desktop OS for breathing new life into older machines.
The Syllable OS has a bright and cheerful desktop - it's just lacking in native software.
At version 0.6.6, Syllable is one of the most advanced alternative OSes around. Unfortunately, though, there’s a distinct lack of native software, and development on the project has slowed down in the last couple of years. If you’re interested in helping out on an OS project, then Syllable’s small but friendly team is a good place to start.
Goal: Extreme performance and compact code size
Without a doubt, KolibriOS wins the award for the most ambitious project in this feature. It’s a fully fledged OS written entirely in assembly language. The KolibriOS team has managed to squeeze pre-emptive multitasking, a graphical desktop, TCP/IP networking, USB support, media playback and many other features onto a 1.44MB floppy disk.
A stunning showcase of assembly language programming is on show in KolibriOS. All this fits onto a single 1.44MB floppy disk.
Booting ‘kolibri.img’ brings you to the desktop in just a couple of seconds. There’s a Windows-like Start menu and taskbar along the bottom of the screen, and the desktop is littered with small utilities. It’s all tremendously impressive, and while KolibriOS will never challenge the main OS trio’s desktop supremacy, it shows what can be achieved with careful coding, especially as we’re so used to bloatware nowadays.
Goal: Research beyond Unix
After Unix had flown out of the Bell Labs nest in the 1970s, the developers kick-started a new research project to scratch their programming itches. Plan 9 aimed to expand beyond the Unix philosophy of representing almost everything as a file: in Plan 9, even network connections and the user interface can be manipulated via the filesystem. Additionally, a communication protocol named 9P was developed to allow Plan 9 machines to share resources.
Ultimately, Plan 9 hasn’t achieved anywhere near the same level of success as Unix. However, it’s still undergoing development and is a source of new ideas for OS programmers. The desktop feels quaintly old- fashioned today – somewhat akin to the old-school X setups of the late ‘80s – but then, it’s designed primarily to satisfy the needs of Plan 9 programmers. This is not an OS that’s going to appeal to many users, but it’s an interesting piece of research.
Goal: Maximum compatibility with DOS software
While ReactOS’s ambitions are seriously lofty, FreeDOS has a considerably simpler job: running DOS programs. That still involves plenty of work, of course, but DOS has essentially been fixed in place for the last decade, so there aren’t new APIs to chase around and implement. Two CD ISOs are available: Fdbasecd, a small 8MB base system with limited functionality; and Fdfullcd, a 153MB beast packed with software and drivers.
The full version boots into an installer or Live mode. In use, it feels just like the DOS of yore: navigating around directories is the same, there’s an excellent EDIT clone and you can even use the mouse with certain text mode apps. Enter menu to launch the supplied programs and games (there’s even a version of FreeDoom included). If you want a graphical desktop, start up OpenGEM.
Goal: Small OS focused on disk partitioning
All of the projects covered so far have been the work of many people. Visopsys, however, is particularly striking because it’s almost entirely the work of one developer, Andy McLaughlin. Since he wrote the first lines of code in 1997, McLaughlin has focused on “cherry-picking the best ideas from other operating systems” and produced a compact OS with powerful partition management tools. It even has some spin-off software (see www.partitionlogic.org.uk).
The Visopsys OS aims to take the best features other OSes offer and roll them into a ssytem no bigger than a floppy disk.
Currently there’s little in the way of native software – it’s mostly small utilities and desktop tools. Still, Visopsys squeezes onto a single floppy disc, and demonstrates what can be achieved with time and determination.
Goal: Small Unix variant and a learning tool
Minix is famous within the alternative OS world for two reasons. First, it was the platform on which Linus Torvalds developed the first version of Linux; and secondly, its code is covered extensively in Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, a book written by the Minix author.
Don't be put off by Minix's austere looks - it is in fact a fantastic OS and a great place for budding developers.
While the first versions of Minix were designed exclusively as learning tools, Minix 3 expands the boundaries further, with low-spec and embedded machines being the main hardware target. Compared to Linux and the BSD family it’s not the most feature-rich Unix flavour on the planet, but as a code and design resource for OS developers, it’s fantastic.
Geeze, kind of took my tongue-in-cheek comment and ran with it?
If it was, then yeah I did. But its not like you gave us that much to work with.
Same Windows-bashing, different day.
1. Install anti-virus. There are good free ones available.
2. Windows comes with Defender, a decent anti-spyware app.
3. Use the hardware firewall in your WAP or router.
4. Windows firewall is already activated on install.
What Windows is vulnerable to in a magazine's lab is utterly irrelevant. Windows 7 is a very good O/S, and a HUGE improvement to Vista.
Here are the infection rates per 1000 executions of the MSRT for the most recent versions of Windows, prior to 7. There is NO question that MS has made huge improvements on this front.
Back away from the Macintosh.
Microsoft Windows 7 will destroy all OS’s!
I didn't say I liked it in the sense that I like using it. The Microsoft Windows interface makes want to drive an ice pick through my forehead. I'd like to see Microsoft Windows as Open Source so stupid game coders don't limit their games to that platform.
I like Free computer software, but that certainly doesn't mean that I'm not willing to pay for it. I bought multiple copies of Turbolinux, for example, when I worked there even though I was one of the people who created it.
Ha,...same as mine.
Looked at Linux Mint?
I don't know. I would hope not as it's difficult to see a group of Open Source programmers deliberately putting in a security misfeature. At least in today's environment. A decade and a half ago, when I was Mr. XEmacs, a lot of people had their heads buried in the sand.
As far as the marketplace goes, sure. But Linux would be a lot more stable if it had used Andy's ideas. Slower, sure, but more stable. As we've seen with Microsoft, stability tends to be low on the list of desirables.
You use that word, but I do not think you know what it means.
I had my first 1 year uptime on a Linux server around 1996. My Linux desktop at work has never crashed in the 3+ years I've been using it. I haven't had a non-test box Linux machine crash in over a decade (I was employed as a kernel developer for a year in 2002/2003 and that doesn't count - I was working on crash dump code so I had to make the machine crash). Not even my Macs are that stable.
Tanenbaum is bright guy, no doubt about it. It's just that he is dead wrong about OS architecture. I think he may be a bit jealous too, because Linus is smarter. I've followed lkml since 1995 and I'm a bit jealous of Linus' skills, to tell you the truth.
You’ve heard of video drivers crashing a Linux machine? I have. That can’t happen with a true microkernel.
Looked at Linux Mint?
Yeah and it’s still ugly.
I’ve heard of it. It’s never happened to me, but I’ve heard of it.
It’s kind of interesting that you should pick this particular example. It’s maybe the one thing that Microsoft Windows got right and Linus got wrong at first. Video drivers, particularly for 3d rendering belong in the kernel.
The early NT had video drivers outside of the kernel, too. They moved it in for performance as of IIRC NT 4, for which we have to thank for video drivers being able to take down Windows.
Yes. Very sad. Perhaps one day Microsoft will fix their products so they don't take such a bashing.
1. Install anti-virus. There are good free ones available.
I'm sure there are some wonderful ones available. One must still question why this is necessary.
2. Windows comes with Defender, a decent anti-spyware app.
Yes, quite decent. Too bad it's still necessary.
3. Use the hardware firewall in your WAP or router.
Yes, if you have one. Else you have to spend money to protect Microsoft's defective products.
4. Windows firewall is already activated on install.
And is still vulnerable to 8 out of 10 randomly selected malware packages.
There is NO question that MS has made huge improvements on this front.
Yes, just like hitting yourself in the head with a 5 lb. hammer is a huge improvement to hitting yourself in the head with a 10 lb. hammer.
But frankly, without the raw data used to create that graph it's rather useless. Except for one fact...
Every single product listed there show some rate of infection by malware. And every single one is a Microsoft product. If Microsoft had data that showed that any other OS had a similar or worse infection rate than any Windows product it would be on that list and highlighted in a big, bold font.
But all that's there is Windows.
And that's pretty much the way it is. Malware, zombied systems, botnets, pretty much every major type of pwnage of systems is almost entirely a Microsoft Windows problem.
No other operating systems have this much of a problem. At last count there were a few pieces of malware for OSX in the wild, all of them trojans that require the user to actually bypass security and install the software. The same for Linux. None for Solaris. None for FreeBSD. None for OpenBSD. None for NetBSD.
And to pre-empt the debunked fantasy that Windows only gets pwned so much because it's more popular, note that Linux/Apache is by far the most common web server platform on the Internet. And it has an infection rate much, much lower than Windows/IIS.
It's possible to build an OS that isn't a petri dish for malware. Maybe one day, Microsoft will do it.
But considering that they've been saying that they're going to clean up their act for 10 years and still haven't, I'm not holding my breath.
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