Will ReactOS kill Windows?
ReactOS is an amazing feat of open-source coding (an I actually LOVE it, despite a few mini bugs), no doubt about that. On the other hand, will it ever (after compatibility and bug fixes that are yet to come :P ) be a valid every-day replacement for Windows? If so, will MS lose it's share of the OS pie chart?
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This is also similar to me wondering if Linux as a whole would kill Windows in the future, even when Android is taken into consideration (if it was made for the desktop that is).
I was speculating/asking about the future, when (hopefully) all the bugs and compatibility issues are fixed. Will anything happen then? Will MS do something or will they let their ''world's best'' OS get knocked down by a free alternative?
Maybe if they keep at it and implement better support for things like DirectX and OpenGL, maybe even DOS support, it'll start to become a valid replacement.
Decent Windows support and Linux compatibility in the same operating system? It's the programmer's dream.
The short answer: No. Microsoft has far too many resources at their disposal for this to even happen, and if it does they most certainly will take action against it, probably almost immediately. If anything, ReactOS seems like a liability to the creators than a useful piece of software, it's just a lawsuit waiting to happen.
The claims that the ReactOS team are making right now could be the death of them in 2 or 3 years when Microsoft files a lawsuit against them, since it so clearly infringes on their copyrights.
As it exists now, ReactOS is basically completely fucking useless. It is unusable with the amount of bugs that it has. I have tried it and I'm far from addicted.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love the idea... the concept is amazing and it would be nice if there were a decent competitor to Windows that natively ran Windows applications... but it's not likely to happen unless ReactOS gets some serious talent that can fix the huge bugs that it has and actually get a stable release. But like I said, if that does happen, Microsoft isn't going to stand by and watch. They're going to take action. Right now, they're no threat at all.
So you mean Windows 10 1607 is the programmers dream? They did add LXSS, so you have a pretty decent Linux CLI in Windows 10 now. They just need to get graphics support and they'll have something pretty decent.
There's a whole curtural shift to smart phones & tablets of one kind or another, and neither the processor nor the OS have as much dictatorship as they once did.
Surely that is one big reason MS is trying to move customers to the Cloud.
Of course it has a future, just not in the way you remember it. The PC with the triditional keyboard/mouse and desktop OS will always remain relevant, as they are productivity devices. The mobile devices (phones/tablets) are primarily consumption devices, as it's quite difficult to be as productive on one as a desktop with certain tasks, like those that require data entry, modeling, etc. Creating the apps themselves for mobile still requires a desktop, so does 3d design, photo editing, any serious writing, etc.
I'm an old duffer. I have friends with recent model laptops that haven't been opened in who knows how long, and they were always asking me "how do I do this, what's this message mean, am I infected".
Now they have their big screen phones, and they are swishing away like teenagers, and I never hear a peep out of them. In fact, I ask THEM how to do stuff on the phone.
So yeah, people who are designing, working a cubicle, hard-core gaming, it'll have a place, but its reverting to a niche market.
That gamer market is still fairly large though... with things l like pcmasterrace, I'm not sure if it's small enough to be niche.
True, just look at how many people use steam.