A fresh version of the old ReactOS has been released

Nov 7, 2014 10:41 GMT  ·  By

ReactOS, a free open source operating system based on the best design principles found in the Windows NT architecture, has been updated to version 0.3.17 and it now supports 16-bit apps.

ReactOS is an operating system built with a single purpose, namely to support Windows-only apps. This is achieved in a few ways, including by using some code from the Wine project. The regular user won't be any wiser and the end result is the same. For now, only a limited collection of applications is available, which can be downloaded with the help of a package manager.

This operating system has been available for a very long time and the progress registered has been rather slow. The devs did manage to implement a similar kernel with the one found in older Windows installations, but they are a long way from any practical application for the OS. Many of the applications that the system can install are also available for other platforms, so the tradeoff doesn't seem to be advantageous.

What's new in ReactOS 0.3.17

When you try to emulate some of the features and design choices from Windows, you can also import some of the problems. While trying to take a few screenshots of the operating system, we accidentally caused a BSOD error (blue screen of death), which we thought that was only showing on Windows systems. Apparently, it can happen in ReactOS as well.

"A major new feature for this release is the inclusion of NTVDM, which provides support for a wide range of 16bit applications, a long requested feature by the community. NTVDM is still undergoing work but we felt that it was ready enough to provide a sneak peak to the wider community. Several regressions and bugs discovered in the release candidates were promptly fixed and incorporated into the final release. ReactOS is quickly approaching a stage where what the releases will offer is polish compared to previous releases," write the developers.

Getting to run the operating system can be a little bit tricky. It didn't work in VirtualBox as a Live CD or from a USB key, but the prebuilt images for VirtualBox booted just fine. This is still work in progress and it's unstable, so be careful where you run it.

The developers have also tried to find more funding in an Indiegogo campaign, but they failed to raise enough money. You can download ReactOS 0.3.17 from the official website.

ReactOS gallery (6 Images)

ReactOS desktop
ReactOS launcherReactOS file manager
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