14 DAY TRIAL // Ziliang Guo from the ReactOS project today announced the availability for download of the first maintenance release of the ReactOS 0.4 open-source operating system.
While not a GNU/Linux distribution, ReactOS is an open source project whose main design goal is to offer users a computer operating system built from scratch that clones the design principles of Microsoft Windows NT's architecture.
After ten long years of stagnation, the Ziliang Guo released version 0.4.0, as an update to the ReactOS 0.3.0 build announced back in 2006, and now it looks like he is getting more and more involved in the development process.
As such, today, May 17, 2016, Ziliang Guo uploaded ReactOS 0.4.1 to the official channels of the project as the first point release in the 0.4.0 series, bringing initial read/write support for the Btrfs file system by implementing the WinBtrfs driver directly into the OS.
Among other noteworthy changes, ReactOS 0.4.1 improves the usability of the Shell by adding various fixes to the rendering of folder views and icons, enhances the built-in USB support, and introduces support for VM shared folders, which right now works with the Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Player apps.
More ReactOS releases are coming soon
In the announcement, Ziliang Guo promises that more ReactOS releases are coming in the next weeks and months, but users shouldn't expect to see big changes. It will be a little bumpy at first, but in the long run, it will be well worth it as he has some big plans for the development of the open-source operating system.
Those plans have not yet been revealed, but you should expect major improvements. ReactOS 0.4.1 is available for download for free as bootable ISO images via the project's website. Shortly, users will also be able to download virtual machine images in the form of VMWare and QEMU appliances.
Once again, please try to keep in mind that ReactOS is not a Linux kernel-based operating system, which means that it has nothing in common with the UNIX architecture. More details about the ReactOS, if you're willing to give it a try, can be found on its homepage.