Microsoft have announced that Windows XP reaches its end of life +2014-04-08, in 7 days. But there are heaps of machines still running +Windows XP, and depending on Windows XP to run their applications, and +upgrading will be expensive, both when it comes to money and when it +comes to the amount of effort needed to migrate from Windows XP to a +new operating system. Some obvious options (buy new a Windows +machine, buy a MacOSX machine, install Linux on the existing machine) +are already well known and covered elsewhere. Most of them involve +leaving the user applications installed on Windows XP behind and +trying out replacements or updated versions. In this blog post I want +to mention one strange bird that allow people to keep the hardware and +the existing Windows XP applications and run them on a free software +operating system that is Windows XP compatible.
+ +ReactOS is a free software +operating system (GNU GPL licensed) working on providing a operating +system that is binary compatible with Windows, able to run windows +programs directly and to use Windows drivers for hardware directly. +The project goal is for Windows user to keep their existing machines, +drivers and software, and gain the advantages from user a operating +system without usage limitations caused by non-free licensing. It is +a Windows clone running directly on the hardware, so quite different +from the approach taken by the Wine +project, which make it possible to run Windows binaries on +Linux.
+ +The ReactOS project share code with the Wine project, so most +shared libraries available on Windows are already implemented already. +There is also a software manager like the one we are used to on Linux, +allowing the user to install free software applications with a simple +click directly from the Internet. Check out the +screen shots on the +project web site for an idea what it look like (it looks just like +Windows before metro).
+ +I do not use ReactOS myself, preferring Linux and Unix like +operating systems. I've tested it, and it work fine in a virt-manager +virtual machine. The browser, minesweeper, notepad etc is working +fine as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, my main test application +is the software included on a CD with the Lego Mindstorms NXT, which +seem to install just fine from CD but fail to leave any binaries on +the disk after the installation. So no luck with that test software. +No idea why, but hope someone else figure out and fix the problem. +I've tried the ReactOS Live ISO on a physical machine, and it seemed +to work just fine. If you like Windows and want to keep running your +old Windows binaries, check it out by +downloading the +installation CD, the live CD or the preinstalled virtual machine +image.
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