ReactOS "Open-Source Windows" Reaches The Milestone Of Being Able To Run Half-Life
67 points by Yogthos
67 points by Yogthos
What was missing? As I understand it, ReactOS uses a lot of WINE code for the Win32 userspace APIs and WINE could run Half Life in 2001 (I had a housemate who ran it on Debian).
I think the main achievement here is that it works on real hardware, and (even if not explicitly stated in the linked article), with hardware acceleration and not a software renderer.
Also WINE can "cheat" by building on top of a linux ecosystem that may or may not be compatible to a NT kernel
WINE is more a translating layer that relies on the whole OS underneath. ReactOS reimplements everything in JavaScript in the browser. Gotcha! It's a full blown OS that targets binary compatibility with Win32 API. Meaning that a ton of stuff has to go into the kernel, including drivers (as mentioned above). This is huge!
This is a huge milestone, as making an OS alone is a huge effort, but making an OS that is compatible to a closed-source system is even more effort.
Running a game written for another OS on your own is a great achievement.
WOW, incredible. The ability to run Windows software in other non-microsoft operating systems truly has advanced incredibly.