ReactOS Is Now Able To Boot From Btrfs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ReactOS Is Now Able To Boot From Btrfs

The ReactOS "open-source Windows" operating system is now able to boot from a Btrfs file-system...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ReactOS-Btrfs-Boots

[DMJC]

Now THIS is exciting news, I can finally ditch Fat32/NTFS as a Windows Interop file system and run a real file system.

[JeansenVaars]

not trying to troll here but seriously, who uses this as a base OS? and why?

[Templar82]

not trying to troll here but seriously, who uses this as a base OS? and why?

Well probably not many people currently due to it still being incomplete.

But I know a number of small businesses still use Windows XP due to running niche software that never got updated, I think that kind of thing is their main market.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

But I know a number of small businesses still use Windows XP due to running niche software that never got updated, I think that kind of thing is their main market.

I migrated such bussiness and now they simply run such software in WINE.

[jacob]

Phoronix: ReactOS Is Now Able To Boot From Btrfs

The ReactOS "open-source Windows" operating system is now able to boot from a Btrfs file-system...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...OS-Btrfs-Boots

I wonder, since the kernel is supposed to be compatible at the driver API level, would it be possible to somehow use this on a real Windows?

[Sethox]

Remember, those with knowledge (that does research, etc) has it easier than those that does not (or that does it "half assly"). And in the business world instead of researching people tend to find the most profitable solution so the mentality of "if it works don't break it"-mentality runs 90% (not really, it's more of a complex business mentality is what I am trying to say) of the time even though if you research your own situation of having an old/outdated system will cause security problems, but that's if you realize this (which goes back to my point).

The irony is that big or small business benefits to open source, the military in Spain proved this to be true. Restructure it's mainframe/systems to Open source alternatives and it only cost them time to find solutions, money saved which gave a bigger budget to spend other things. But again to the main point, research has to be done properly.

But to who would use ReactOS, well the use case is obvious.. those that uses Windows in general. I mean Open Source >Proprietary software... right?
Well like always, when the time is right (when ReactOS becomes more stable).

[Tomin]

ReactOS just probably got better file system support than Windows ever had.

I wonder, since the kernel is supposed to be compatible at the driver API level, would it be possible to somehow use this on a real Windows?

Probably not. I think Windows is too closed for that. Otherwise we would have already seen free drivers for ext2/3/4 but currently it seems that all we see are some explorer like programs that can browse those file systems and some company selling some driver but that's not free. Maybe I'm wrong here though, I haven't really looked into this.

[DMJC]

not trying to troll here but seriously, who uses this as a base OS? and why?

It's a completely valid question so I'll answer it. I like and use Caligari trueSpace as my 3D modelling package. I hate Maya, 3D Studio Max, and despise Blender's user interface (I have respect for the guys making Blender because as an Open Source project they are volunteering and putting effort in). That said, TrueSpace has Z-order issues in WINE which no one has expressed interest in fixing. But ReactOS has actually already fixed this issue. This means that my preferred 3D modeler works completely flawlessly under ReactOS and since I hate the Windows 10 User interface, and don't need SMB for Windows, as all my other computers are UNIX based (Filezilla for SFTP goodness), ReactOS is a nice fit that lets me run my legacy applications without caring about the modern Windows hell. I mostly prefer to play older games e.g Wing Commander, and Freespace 1/2 and ReactOS can run those programs fine. Throw in the GIMP and the fact I can build/run Vegastrike's engine (and I'm mostly interested in extending Vegastrike's game content anyway) and ReactOS is a pretty nice fit for me. Now I'm mostly emulating ReactOS using Qemu, but I am looking forward to putting together a compatible machine and running ReactOS once 64-bit builds start working (My GPU is even a 770 GTX which is even rated for Windows XP!).

[SteamPunker]

ReactOS just probably got better file system support than Windows ever had.



Probably not. I think Windows is too closed for that. Otherwise we would have already seen free drivers for ext2/3/4 but currently it seems that all we see are some explorer like programs that can browse those file systems and some company selling some driver but that's not free. Maybe I'm wrong here though, I haven't really looked into this.

Actually, it's not as bad as you think and there are in fact such Free (as in Speech) drivers available. There is a standard Windows API for file system drivers called IFS (Installable File System). Ext2Fsd and WinBtrfs are notable open source drivers that implement this API, and they work with both Windows and ReactOS, alebeit with some limitations, one of which just having been solved as described in the blog post.

See the links below for more info.

* http://www.ext2fsd.com/
* https://github.com/maharmstone/btrfs