Derided by many people because a “bad copy” of the best-known operating system on Desktop and Laptop, ReactOS, has finally decided to implement UEFI boot support and DirectX support, which I am forever of the pillars of the Windows world since the dawn of modern computing.
As absurd as this operating system, created to be an Open Source version of Windows, may seem, it still needed CD-Rom root to actually be installed on devices; in that case either you had a laptop that still had the CD player, or you had a desktop that had the player or you had to use an external CD-Rom reader, fortunately this “Windows-like” operating system has also adapted to the standards of modern computing.
ReactOS finally supports DirectX and boot from UEFI UEFI
The “Windows Open Source” project has published Yesterday the latest latest newsletter illustrating the development progress of the last few months for this open source operating system project that aims to binary compatibility with device drivers and Windows application/space software.
This open source project, which is now 25 years old (at the time it was called FreeWin95), continues to make progress in providing a free software operating system with driver and application/game compatibility with Windows Server 2003 and later versions of Microsoft Windows; however the developers they don’t have a specific date for the next release yetwhich is expected to be ReactOS 0.4.15, are making huge progress in the endeavor.
Some of the latest successes of ReactOS include significant improvements to ReactOS kernel debugging, continued improvements in UEFI boot to be able to boot on a greater variety of hardware, improvements in the UI/shell, additional work related to Microsoft DirectX support and preparations for NT6+ application compatibility to improve software support of Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11. and NT6+ compatibility is still considered experimental at this time.
In case you missed some news on the most well-known Windows “clone”, the developers they are working on an improved graphics setup process and were able to boot ReactOS on the Valve Steam Deck as part of their UEFI improvements and hardware compatibility work. However, much of ReactOS development and testing continues to take place inside virtual machines (VMs).
Here’s a screenshot shared by the ReactOS project in their latest newsletter to show off some of the latest improvements in the shell of this open source operating system:
More details on UEFI support (and not only) and on the ongoing development of the ReactOS operating system can be found here Newsletter 103.
ReactOS’ next challenge: 64-bit support
An important future challenge for the most famous “Windows Open Source” project” is represented by support for 64-bit architecture.
Until now, all the official builds were developed exclusively for the x86 (32-bit) architecture, but support for the x64 (64-bit) architecture is a key goal for the future; this step would allow ReactOS to take full advantage of modern hardware and offer greater compatibility with 64-bit versions of Windows operating systemsFortunately, ReactOS developers are working hard to address this challenge and bring the project to new levels of versatility and compatibility.
It should be noted that a few years ago had been leaked the Windows XP source code Network, this could help ReactOS developers a lot for a future version of the operating system that supports, among other things, the classic 64-bit architecture.
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