ReactOS - a possible alternative to Microsoft Windows

I was looking for an alternative to windows, but one that could provide me with the exact feeling of using windows. Recently I happened to come across a project called ReactOS, that has been devoted to recreating the Windows NT. Everybody knows that windows is proprietary. You have to always buy a version, inorder to use it. But what these guys have achieved is simply wonderful. They recreate the actual windows environment with all the support for fat16/32. NTFS support is currently under development. I'm really amused. They work in close conjunction with Wine development group. It's been a really very long project spanning over 10 years atleast. I have just added up some of the screenshots.

The first is a setup of openoffice running under ReactOS.


The second is a ReactOS running in QEMU virtual machine with another ReactOS as the host.


The third is accessing a windows remote desktop from ReactOS.



The fourth is a visual studio 2005 installation running under ReactOS.



The final screenshot shows a registry explorer in ReactOS and a small portion of the Desktop Background.


Well surely as you can see from the screenshots, ReactOS will be the only possible alternative to Windows. I myself have become a fan for it.

And for all those who worry about its size. It not even crosses 50Mb. This the alpha build anyway. The Live cd is just less then 27 Mb and the Installation cd is just 27 Mb. I sure hope that people start turning their attentions towards ReactOS.

People can try it at http://www.reactos.org. They also provide the OS Pre-installed with most virtual machines, which can be easily tried. I'm eagerly expecting a stable release.