On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Pravin Dhayfule dhayfule@gmail.com wrote:
I came across this piece of crap http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html that claims itself to be a FOSS alternative to Windows and Better than Linux.
As per them they have built a FREE OS based on NT Kernel.
This is commendable IMO; they have been able to figure out the deep internals of Windows in a "clean room" implementation.
So this means that they have come up with a free Windows Looking OS with capabilities of running Windows applications.
So what is wrong with it? Think of it, I can run it as a guest VM (w/o any royalty issues) and use it for a one of a kind application or test my network setup with "windows" OS ...
I am damn sure it has also replicated the security bugs.
Assuming it has, on the positive side, it can be used as a honey pot. It would be possible to put in hooks in the OS source and study the behavior of malware w/o blindly relying on multi B$ vendors. Come to think of it, it can actually make Windows more safe (in the long run). Hypothetical scenario - an exploit is fixed by the ReactOS community within a few hours or a couple of days, whereas the fix is at least a few days away for the proprietary version.
Its like they are M$ Supporters in the disguise of FOSS Supporters
Nah. They are hackers who have taken up the challenge to make the computing world a safer place by offering an alternative.
My two cents.
-- Arun Khan