Re: [ros-dev] New ideas added to GSoC Ideas list

[Riccardo Paolo Bestetti]

Dear Can,
Your argument would hold if the objective of the project was to support edge cases by
coding legacy support to eliminate the need for other people to modernize their
infrastructure. Is this what ReactOS wants to achieve as its main goal?

I would get your argument if ReactOS was even remotely usable in the real world. But what
you're supporting right now with your argument is to support an edge case in an
operating system which cannot support general cases yet.
It is for this reason that not only I disagree with you, but I expressely oppose to your
argument, for I think it would be harmful for the project to proceed with such mindset,
which, as we've seen in the past (it is for this reason that I referenced the previous
discussion on the target NT version) is not limited to this specific topic.

Sorry, but I just don't see how "WoW16" can make sense among items such as
DirectX, AMD64 support, SMP, better translation support, etc.

Also, I think you didn't fully send point #2, but I can imagine where you were going,
and I probably already gave an answer to that too.

Best regards,
Riccardo Paolo Bestetti

From: Ros-dev [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Can Tasan
Sent: 17 March 2017 12:48
To: ReactOS Development List <ros-dev(a)reactos.org>
Subject: Re: [ros-dev] New ideas added to GSoC Ideas list

Dear Ricardo,

Firstly, Win16 application support doesn't interrupt our project. It strengthens us.
On technical view, supporting them doesn't make any design change to NT architecture,
apps won't be able to access hardware directly. Like any app, they'll obey the
rules.

Secondly, there are a number of reasons to support Win16:

1) Many people and corporations still use DOS and Win16 apps today, thus their system
can't be upgraded easily. Most of the cases, DOSBOX will do the job but what if any
problem occurs, or integration with system is needed? With Win16 support out of the box,
people will get much more technical support and security updates.

2) Many apps released in 90s have 16 bit setups, even they are actually 32-bit. In this


-------- Orjinal mesaj --------
Kimden: Riccardo Paolo Bestetti
<[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>
Tarih: 17.03.2017 14:13 (GMT+03:00)
Alıcı: ReactOS Development List
<[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>
Konu: Re: [ros-dev] New ideas added to GSoC Ideas list
Sorry for the non-developer intrusion, this is the point of view of an IT technician that
would happily substitute Windows machines with ReactOS machine in an hypotetical future.

To me, this looks like an extension (and a perilous one) to the "which NT version
should we target?" discussion, which at some point was interrupted and so a decision
has never been made.
I understand that seamless 3.1 support would be "cool", but would it be of any
use? If you can already get it working albiet in a non-seamless way, it seems more than
enough to me, and I don't think that resources should be allocated to this if the
objective of the project really is (as I understand) to create a viable replacement for
Windows.

Just my two cents as a real-world user.

Regards,
Riccardo

From: Ros-dev [mailto:[e-mail]] On Behalf Of Can Tasan
Sent: 17 March 2017 05:40
To: ReactOS Development List
<[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>>
Subject: Re: [ros-dev] New ideas added to GSoC Ideas list

Wine still maintains and even improves Windows 3.x support! I hope they don't give
up!

Can we use Wine code while implementing WoW16?