George

ReactOS keeps getting better (Download Squad)

Jan 24th 2008 12:33AM I just heard about ReactOS, and am very interested in trying it on a spare computer. I still use Win98. I had XP on a computer but wanted to install 98 because that is what I am used to. As another person said, I do not want to have to keep re-learning the OS or other regularly used software. Much if not most newere software is just bloated versions of the older stuff that keeps wanting more and more hardare and power. I dont want bloat, I want simplicity. Microsoft continues to go in the direction of "bloat" and I want no part of it. I do not like XP, not to mention it's set up in a way that everytime I change my hardware, XP goes berzerk because of registration issues.

On top of that, MS continues to abandon the older software they created, in order to sell their new stuff. They already abandoned Win95, 98, ME, 2K and just recently they quit supporting the first version of XP. In other words, if we want to keep using our older computers, we will be running a dead OS with no support and as it looks, lack of applications. I can guarantee you that I will never go to Vista. Most people know it's got lots of problems, is full of advertising, and required a brand new computer with tremendous power. I am not going to keep buying new computers every few years just because MS keeps making the older ones obsolete with their greediness. My older computers and Win98 work just fine, but it's getting harder and harder to find apps that support 98.

I have been thinking what I will do in another year or so when 98 just cant be used anymore due to lack of support. I had already discarded any idea of linux, which I tried and found to be something developed for the "computer geek" type of person who spends their entire life in front of their computer tinkering with it. That's not me, and probably the majority of home computer users, as well as most businesses. I look at it this way. I computer is a tool. Compare this to a hammer. I buy a hammer to pound nails, but if the hammer head was to need to be replaced and modified and adjusted everytime I wanted to pound in a nail, I'd find something else to use. Linux is not and has never been for the casual computer user. Unless they change this, it will never be very popular except in the "geek crowd", which is a whole different class of people.

Knowing that ReactOS is available sounds promising. At least it looks like I wont have to send my computer to the garbage dump in another year or two, and find another hobby outside the internet, and resort back to pencil, paper, and typewriter for my home related business recordkeeping.

One thing I do hope is that ReactOS is compatible with DOS. I have used Dos for about 20 years, and still find it quite useful.