Recent Developments

[M Bealby]

Recent developments have been quite heated recently, and I would just
like to add in some of my own opinions.  If code was directly copied
from Windows then it should be removed.  Period.  This is against the
aims and charter of this project.  If Windows was only disassembled to
gain information on how it works then I think this falls under fair
use.  Whether a spec should have been written and another person
implement the spec is a topic which I'm sure will be discussed for a
while to come.  This is my point of view on the matter and I will not
discuss it further.

It is unfortunate that WaxDragon is also leaving the project, I'm sure
he will be missed.  But people do have lives to lead as well.  I'm
sure that in the future I will have to leave the ReactOS project too,
and probably for the same reasons, such as family and work.  Ideally I
would like all developers / testers and other contributers to stay
with the project, but I understand that this isn't feasible and I
respect them for what they have contributed during their lifetime with
the project.

I devote some of my spare time to the ReactOS project for two main
reasons:

1. I wish to learn more about operating system development.

2. I wanted to practice my code auditing and security skills on a
project that was of a size that was not too large and mature
(e.g. Linux), while not being so small to be insignificant (various
other home-brew OSs).

Number one is coming along nicely as I'm learning about various topics
such as memory management and how drivers work.  Number two is coming
along as well, although much slowly as code auditing a fast moving
project such as this is very time consuming and I have been very busy
lately.

I currently see ReactOS at the same stage of Linux in the mid
nineties.  People run it, play with it and contribute to it.  The size
of this group of people is not large, but they are usually technically
minded and their number is sufficient for the project to grow and
continue.  Development is happening at a fast pace and keeping up can
be time consuming at the moment.  Lets not try and loose our drive and
ambition here.  You have implemented a fairly significant amount of
the Windows operating system in a relatively short amount of time.
You have contributed code to other projects such as WINE.  You have a
large number of applications that can already run on the system.  You
have achieved a lot, don't stop now.

I think that ReactOS is at a critical stage in development and once is
becomes a little more stable we will see a large increase in the
number of users beta testing and trying it out.  I wish the ReactOS
project to succeed and it is something that I think will occur
eventually.

To all of ReactOS' developers, testers and supporters: You are doing a
great job, don't stop now.

Cheers,
Martin