I'm not a developer, so I have no say in the matter, but if you want an
outsider's opinion, I
would suggest implementing Arwinss for the near-term, so we have better
software
compatibility. Software compatibility brings publicity, since people will
actually be able to
do things with ReactOS that they couldn't do before, like run Win32 programs.
A lot of
the software I test has issues with Win32, and if Arwinss gets them running in
the near-
term it'll show people the real potential of ReactOS. Some of these people may
be
programmers, who can then funnel their interest in ReactOS towards contributing
to
development.
Arwinss is a stopgap measure. Regardless of your personal differences in the
matter, use
Arwinss to gather publicity and near-term compatibility, so development can be
focused on
other issues, such as DirectX, USB support, or better filesystem support. When
the other
components are up and running, when we have a functioning ReactOS in beta,
hopefully the
publicity that will follow ReactOS's progress will have added to the pool of
developers. This
larger pool of developers will then have the manpower to re-implement a more
"native" Win32
subsystem. While everyone in an open-source project is technically free to go
as they please,
perhaps the current pool of developers could have a gentleman's agreement to
fix the native
Win32 when the rest of the Windows components are up and running. Everybody
seems to
agree that the current Win32 is a monster, so use Arwinss to rally more troops
to battle the beast.
Even when the native Win32 is fixed, there may be a place for Arwinss where the
optional
features it offers can be used. Specialized deployments of ReactOS could take
advantage
of Arwinss, though the main branch of ReactOS would re-implement the native
Win32. A
corporation that likes the X Server features of Arwinss might decide to sponsor
ReactOS,
and that assistance could be used to progress the rest of the project as a
whole. Don't forget
native Win32, but let's see what opportunities Arwinss opens up for ReactOS.
Perhaps the choice between Arwinss and native Win32 could be made at install.
Arwinss
would be the recommended package until native Win32 is fixed.
For what it's worth, I'm looking forward to testing my personal list of
benchmark software
against Arwinss. :)
-Joshua Bailey
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