Free OS's In The Future?

Stephanie, post: 11507, member: 25 said:

Ive been watching ReactOS and hope to try it when its released in full.

If you'd ask me, ReactOS would come first. Microsoft doesn't really seem to release an OS like that at the the moment though but there is a verrrrrryy little chance that MS might do that. Also, you have to buy 8.1 too if you're using an OS other than just Windows 8

The cost to upgrade to W8 was low, and with the way MS has been turning into Apple, why not?

aritra2116, post: 11557, member: 206 said:

I have tried ReactOS beta a few months ago on my Vbox. It kept crashing though with a BSOD for weird reasons. Though the project has tried to support Windows apps with using a Wine-like interface, It cannot really IMITATE Windows as the the source code is strictly controlled within Microsoft.

You think the problem might lie with trying it as a virtual OS? When I install Windows as huest on a Linux host in VBox I can never get it to run properly. That may be down to me though... ops:

Alonso Chocano, post: 11559, member: 132 said:

The cost to upgrade to W8 was low, and with the way MS has been turning into Apple, why not?

The question of 'free OSes' from Microsoft still lies in the question that MS will still continue Windows 8.x

bigseb, post: 11564, member: 98 said:

You think the problem might lie with trying it as a virtual OS? When I install Windows as huest on a Linux host in VBox I can never get it to run properly. That may be down to me though... ops:

I didn't install guest addons when I used ReactOS. It kept crashing for unknown reasons. ReactOS also seems to have a 'Wine Internet Explorer' as the web browser.

I do hope you realize that OSX is not free and never has been. Ever. Nor will it ever be free.
It has been a nominal fee for the OS and updates in the past, true, but, you were paying for the OS in the Hardware Upcharges. In other words, Apple charges you twice as much for the same hardware you can get from New Egg or anywhere else. You can build a OSX clone, but it is illegal to install OSX on a system not purchased directly from Apple. Yes, EULA Illegal.

Which is why we had one group that tried to sell cheap Apple clones, only to be sued and shut down by Apple (talk about anti-competitive). One of the reasons I hate apple,, total hypocrisy. I remember those days of the Apple MS wars and MS being railroaded for anti-competitiveness.
And they still are today. It's a joke.

Android is free because it is based on Linux Kernal, probably so much so, that they are forbidden from selling it due to the license, like RedHat is free, but you buy the support.
That doesn't make it better, btw.

If Windows ever does become "free" (notice the quotes), trust me, you will pay for it somewhere else. It will be bundled into a very high priced service of some kind.

ReactOS, I have followed them for many years, they are still trying to get it going, which is good.
They had a huge set back unfortunately due to someone possibly reverse engineering some MS code. They had to got through every line of code and verify/confirm it was clean.

ReactOS, if it can ever get traction, could change Windows forever.

The last version of ReactOS I think I looked at was .39 or something,, very old and was not updated for many years. I kept checking and there was nothing new.
I just dl'd it and loaded it from Qemu take a look.

I do encourage donating to ReactOS.

But keep in mind, ReactOS is going on about [S]12 [/S]14 years of Development. It's very old.