Now I like this one. I seriously would love to see ReactOS be successful, and I'm no developer, but I can say that if we want this to be successful, then we need to take the winning features from the best of both worlds. Windows has the flexibility and user-friendliness, and Linux is free. So, put them together and you have the winning combination right? On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 7:37 AM, Chris Monahan < [email protected]> wrote:
> ReactOS Mailing List > > I'm not a developer, i'm just a follower of the community and enthusiast > but allow me to outline why the decision to not include components that do > not add to the compatibility with the Win32 platform is more than simple > politics. > > The way windows works is that it provides a solid OS that has the neccesary > API's to accomodate a healthy ecosystem of third-party software. It also > bends over backwards to enable such third party software to work. I feel > that this emphasis on third party packages and maintaining this ecosystem is > possibly the most important of Windows principles. This is not a principle > of Linux, or rather the third party software ecosystem only really exists on > a source code level. (I'm not counting community repositories as 'third > party' I mean there are pretty much no packages that you can just download, > install and run on any given linux flavour and version.) > > That's just the way it works there; arguably it's more secure for Linux, > but it lacks in many ways the flexibility of Windows. For example I cannot > install the latest firefox or OpenOffice in ubuntu without potentially > breaking something - instead I wait for the next release of ubuntu. > > ReactOS attempts to provides a synthesis of the opensource values of Linux > and this software flexibility of Windows. > > There is a tension, however, when you look at the bigger picture. Microsoft > is a principle developer for it's own platform, and will often bundle things > in an 'integrated' manner within the OS. This, in a sense, defies the > third-party philosophy that should be inherent with the platform. This may > be less of a problem these days as developers and users are more aware, but > it's still an issue. > > ReactOS, it seems, attempts to get rid of this tension by harshly pushing > back the line between OS and third-party software - no bundling of anything > that isn''t neccesary to maintain that third-party ecosystem. This is not a > bad thing as it allows this software flexibility to show its strength, but > many who are used to the feature set of linux distros and editions of > Windows are confused. It must be noted that just because ReactOS won't come > with Python, or a media player, or a browser etc does not mean that they > will not be available. Because of the software flexibility inherent in the > platform, it will be a simple matter of downloading a package and running > it. > > There's also nothing that anyone can, or should, do to stop people > distributing versions with software packages bundled or 'integrated' a la > the Reaction project. It has been said in the past that such 'distros' would > compromise reactos, creating a nightmare of mutually incompatible systems > like we see in the Linux world. I counter that the nature of the platform is > such that those that break compatibiltiy will neccesarily die out, and to > restrict or condemn third party distros would in fact be damaging to the > strength of a platform with such emphasis on third party software. > > The decision to keep ReactOS pure has more to it than simple politics. It > is a principled commitment to the purity of the platform. It, of course, > could be associated with the childish anti-linux stance adopted by a > minority of ReactOS community members, but they do not speak for the project > as a whole and they should largely be ignored in favour of relevent > criticisms and judgements about the roles of each platform. > > Chris Monahan > > _______________________________________________ > Ros-general mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-general >
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