A lot of people in popular discussion forums keep asking “why should I
use ReactOS” or “why would someone need ReactOS” or “why not help
develop Wine instead?” or “why not use Linux with Wine?”.
We have an answer for all these questions, but it's not some simple magic word. Let's name a few key issues here:
-
There are plenty of *nix operating systems out there,
this is very good. However they have different targeting (they
perfectly fit server market, but desktop still isn't conquered, and
several factors work against most Windows alternatives out today).
-
There is currently no operating system
which implements the kernel architecture design of MS Windows NT family
(GNU/Linux is the best for comparison here: Linux was started as
“clone” of Minix and Unix (eventually going on to be a Unix
replacement), and ReactOS was started as “clone” of Windows NT).
-
Linux+Wine is never going to be a complete
replacement for a full Windows system. It's not only because Linux
(despite there are some really user-friendly Linux distros out there),
and not only because many users might find a transition to Linux/BSD
difficult, but it's due to design and implementation decisions of Linux
and Wine architectures, which prevent 100% compatibility.
-
Even though Linux supports many types of
hardware, Windows is still the dominant platform for device
manufactorers. There are attempts to overcome this situation (like NDIS
Wrapper for NT network card drivers, there are rumours about supporting
NT video drivers, Captive NTFS for NT filesystem support), but ReactOS
solves them from the first day by its design – be compatible with
existing drivers and existing applications.
-
There are many people who do not like how
*nix systems behave or dislikes the conventions used. For them, Linux,
BSD, and Mac OS X are not options, even before application
compatibility and hardware support come into play. An operating system
should give the consumers what they want instead of demanding the
consumer conform. Even with WINE, you are still running an operating
system that behaves quite differently from Windows, at a user and
system level.
- Backwards compatibility. This is something vital
for many people and companies, but the development philosophy of Linux
and the GNU project do not consider it a priority. The Windows family
has always went out of its way to ensure a stable API and backwards
compatibility. By its design, ReactOS will also follow the philosophy
of backwards compatibility with existing and future applications
designed for the Windows NT family.
-
There are no plans for Windows to become released under a GPL-compatible license (at least, ReactOS team is not aware of them).
-
Finally, ReactOS offers a third alternative, for people who are fed up
with Microsoft's policies but do not want to give up the familiar
environment, architectural design, and millions of existing software
applications and thousands of hardware drivers.
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