On 13 May 2004 at 22:48, João Miguel Neves wrote:
And what's the advantage of using an operation system over another that is just a look-alike? --
If this were true, why use Linux when FreeBSD looks almost identical and can run Linux binaries?
Because GNU/Linux is my first of the two and there's no compelling reason for me to change to FreeBSD (the 1000% factor usually used in marketing).
Which is precisely the same logic why people continue to use Windows. Unless there's an obvious and compelling reason to change, the incumbant has a major advantage.
A free software clone of Windows would be immensely useful. For one thing it brings all the driver & application support Windows gets. It's also open source with all the advantages that brings like ability to modify, enhance & study. It would likely cost no money though that's not so important.
Why isn't wine enough?
1. No binary compatibility with Windows drivers. This is very important to most people 2. Few Windows games will run under WINE. And this is unlikely to change as DirectX demands a certain driver architecture Linux isn't moving towards. 3. No matter how wonderful WINE becomes, running Windows applications under it will always be a bit of a black art. Most people just want to shove in the CD and make it go. This is why Linux is unsuited to replace Windows in non-server arenas
And why do you think reactos will go further than wine on implementing win32?
Actually ReactOS incorporates WINE, they simply provide a "native" implementation layer - instead of calling Linux functions, they call reimplementations of the NT kernel API.
Cheers, Niall