Re: ReactOS

I thought ReactOS had specifically undertaken an audit to make sure 
their code *was* "clean" and conformed to US laws w/r/t to reverse 
engineering? There's a statement to this effect here: 
http://www.reactos.org/wiki/index.php/Audit

Is it because it was only an internal audit that it's still considered 
legally suspect?

--Brendan

On 12/08/2014 10:39 AM, James McKenzie wrote:
> One thing about ReactOS.  It is not "clean" code and could possibly lead to
> legal action. It is one thing to watch what  code does in a black box
> situation. It's wholly different to replicate code.
> No one wants to sponsor activities of the second type.
> James
> On Dec 7, 2014 7:49 PM, "Andrew Udvare" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>
>>> On 2014-12-07, at 14:57, [email protected] wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> If you want a stand alone Wine, you are looking at React OS,
>>>> which is awful ....
>>>>
>>>
>>> I have noticed that also.  Does anyone here know anything about the
>>> ReactOS project?  Is it ever going to be a respectable free non-Unix
>>> operating system, like Haiku or Plan 9?
>>
>> Yes. To answer your second question, I do not generally think so unless a
>> company really wants to fund and do it. It has been a 100% voluntary effort
>> from day 1 and has made a decent amount of progress. It borrows a good
>> portion of Wine for its code but also does things Wine does not such as
>> work with devices. ReactOS is pariah-like. People know it exists but almost
>> nobody uses it.
>>
>> Their main problem is motivation. Who really wants to build a full clone
>> of Windows (as opposed to do something more original)? There have been
>> attempts in the past but none have come so far as ReactOS. I only defend
>> the project (as with Wine) in the sense that someday these old applications
>> may not run and we have an alternative to emulation. However, I do not
>> think ReactOS or Wine will be the norm for running older applications over
>> emulation unless it is fully supported (like how Wine has the commercial
>> product).
>>
>> ReactOS had a good initial start. A Windows replacement when Windows went
>> south with Vista was the thought. But that faded quickly. Key contributors
>> left the project due to lack of interest, and it got stuck for at least a
>> year, however the website was maintained seemingly. The project recently
>> was part of a IndieGogo funding effort, but even that failed to meet its
>> goal. There clearly is just not a lot of interest.
>> https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/reactos-community-edition
>>
>> Would it be cool to have a viable Windows replacement? Maybe. Given that I
>> only use Windows VMs to test IE it does not matter to me. It could maybe
>> help people still using Windows 3.x/OS/2/95 move to something modern and
>> supported (if those companies are not getting support from Microsoft), but
>> still runs their old applications. However, I am pretty sure we do not want
>> them on a Windows-like kernel/OS in general.
>>
>> I would not call ReactOS awful (in fact I respect the effort), but similar
>> to telling some company their product does not work in Wine, it is rather
>> exotic.
>>
>> Andrew
>>
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