> > menuetOS Syllable Visopsys ReactOS Linux Windows7 > > Can you mention some pros and cons, in particular of the lesser > known first 3 items on the list? I can say about the last three > that: ReactOS tries to clone WinNT/XP, Linux has a lot of free > open software and Windows7 tries to be cool where Vista was not. > I think all OSes in this list have a more or less fancy GUI :-) > Not sure about hardware (RAM, disk, CPU?) requirements, though.
Okay, menuetOS was mentioned by someone else and I've heard of it, but I don't know much about it. Syllable, check out http://www.syllable.org, is being designed for ordinary people instead of geeks and it is completely free. A new release has come out recently. Apparently, a Pentium is good enough to run Syllable. I think Syllable in the long run might make more sense than ReactOS as Syllable shouldn't inherit any Windows NT problems. Syllable supports OpenGL applications, so there is some software support already. Syllable comes with it's own web browser, Webster, that is being actively developed. The major advantage of Syllable is the design, it is intended to NOT overwhelm ordinary people. The major con of Syllable is that there are few developers and it clearly isn't finished yet. I couldn't get 0.6.4 to install directly on my Pentium 4. Visopsys, see http://www.visopsys.org, is the open source project of one man. I think the major strength of Visopsys is disk management. Visopsys aims to be compatible with other operating systems without being a clone of any of them. Major con, development has only been going on since 1997 and since there is one developer, one could argue that development is slow. I couldn't get 0.7 to install on my Pentium 4 last time I tried. Maybe there is no parallel ata support? ReactOS is in alpha stage and neither feature complete nor stable. The goal of ReactOS is that you replace Windows 7 with it and this is barely noticed. ReactOS aims to have the same interface as Windows and run the same software. Major con is the developer community, it is small and there are a number of very strong egos there. If you get chewed out on ReactOS IRC or flamed on the discussion boards, don't expect any corrective action in your favor. The IRC chat room really isn't moderated fairly, so don't be surprised if you are attacked personally and end up being the person kicked out. The current ReactOS developers have some major personal issues that are hurting the project public relations wise. I wish the current crop of developers would quit and get replaced by other, more emotionally stable people. Criticism is not handled well in the ReactOS community, so don't go there. There are a few programs that already work in ReactOS when you can get it running, but nothing current. I used to be nute on the forum boards, look for nute and zimbra and you'll know what I'm talking about as far as the community being problematic. Linux, various flavors, is the premier free operating system. Add wine to Linux and gain access to a fair number of Windows applications. Linux has been slowly gaining on the Desktop. There are many user groups to help you use Linux effectively. The application list is growing. Linux, unlike Syllable, Visopsys, MenuetOS, and ReactOS is stable and mature. Linux, unfortunately, is not light weight requiring almost as much processing power as Windows 7 depending on what you are doing with it. Linux is what you install if you have a Pentium 4 or better, Pentium 3 is possible for a server. There is a bit of a mess right now with gnome 3.0. The Linux 3.0 kernel is coming out, so there will probably be a minor amount of difficulty while vendors catch up. Of all the open source projects, Linux is probably the most successful. Linux is actually just a kernel, GNU/Linux is an operating system of which there are various flavors. There are probably over 300 different Linux distributions today. Which is the major problem, Linux standards base attempts to address the so many versions problem, but it is a voluntary effort. Linux is seen by many as a synonym for "it works." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EMC VNX: the world's simplest storage, starting under $10K The only unified storage solution that offers unified management Up to 160% more powerful than alternatives and 25% more efficient. Guaranteed. http://p.sf.net/sfu/emc-vnx-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
