New Open Source Windows-Compatible Operating System Released (github.com) 23
Red Hat product manager Pau Garcia Quiles (also long-time Slashdot reader paugq) spotted an interesting project on GitHub:
Free95, a new lean, Windows-compatible operating system is available from GitHub. In its current form, it can run very basic Win32 GUI and console applications, but its developer promises to keep working on it to reach DirectX and even game compatibility.
"Free95 is your friendly Windows Environment with an added trust of the open source community," according to its README file. (It's licensed under the GPL-3.0 license.) And in answer to the question "Why?" it responds "To remove Windows's bloat, and security problems. Being controlled by a large corporation is unsettling."
"It's still in-development of course," the developer post recently on Reddit, "and I'll appreciate anyone who'd like to contribute." In one comment they claim Free95 is "much more lightweight, simpler and faster than ReactOS." And looking to the future, they add "I might do DirectX stuff and make some games run. Or, what about DOOM?"
"Free95 is your friendly Windows Environment with an added trust of the open source community," according to its README file. (It's licensed under the GPL-3.0 license.) And in answer to the question "Why?" it responds "To remove Windows's bloat, and security problems. Being controlled by a large corporation is unsettling."
"It's still in-development of course," the developer post recently on Reddit, "and I'll appreciate anyone who'd like to contribute." In one comment they claim Free95 is "much more lightweight, simpler and faster than ReactOS." And looking to the future, they add "I might do DirectX stuff and make some games run. Or, what about DOOM?"
Free95 (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
In the end, it's always a catch-up game. Wine is doing well IMHO with regards to that. Anyway, interesting project nevertheless but I wouldn't bet on it to seriously replace the original.
Re: (Score:1)
I recall Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer being malware vectors more than Windows was alone. If this Windows compatible OS is used for games and non-Microsoft applications then I expect that the concerns of malware would be on par with most any other open source OS. I guess part of this depends on how closely the OS emulates the "real deal" Microsoft Windows OS. Perhaps I recall incorrectly but the malware got into Windows and spread because of features that were only peripherally related to making
Re: (Score:3)
I think the problem with Win95 WRT to malware was that there was no user protections. Any program could do anything basically meaning anything you ran could completely compromise the system with no barriers.
Sure, Word would (at one point) run macros without asking putting Word documents at the same level as risk as executables (to a point), and other similar things.
But this was a completely 100% trusting environment with no user separation at its core. That was why malware thrived, no exploits needed to get
Re: (Score:2)
At the core, yes, you are correct. I recall doing all kinds of things with DOS including Terminate and Stay Resident programs. It was pretty cool but yes, you are correct, at the core any program could access everything and do how it seemed pleased on any resources. There were no concept of memory access control, no concept of running as root, no such like things essentially.
With regards to that, IIRC, the 386 was the first Intel chip to come out with a dedicated PIN allowing such things that were taken for
Emulating Win32 not Win95 (Score:2)
Win95 was a malware vector and that was was 30 years ago. Please no more.
They are emulating the Win32 API, introduced by WinNT and shared by Win9x. You are reading too much into an unfortunate and misleading naming.
"More lightweight than ReactOS" (Score:2)
Yea wait until you get fucking DirectX going you'll be just as bloated.
Re:"More lightweight than ReactOS" (Score:4, Interesting)
This thing is basically Win NT 3.1 which in total used about 70MB or so of disk space (but around 100MB on MIPS
Re: (Score:2)
LOL +1 funny, I rarely laugh that much nowadays reading Slashdot.
This will be great (Score:2)
Said no one ever. I want to install an entire OS just to run Widows apps individually without all the luxury of a full OS? WTF?
Re: (Score:2)
I think Microsoft did this sort of thing with it cross compiled Mac OS apps in the 1990s. There was a library that was basically the MacOS API.
Re: (Score:2)
"In its current form, it can run very basic Win32 GUI and console applications, but its developer promises to keep working on it"
It runs only a dos box and notepad, but the developer pinky promises to keep up the work! Which is typical US: deceptive marketing, lies and promises that will be broken any moment.
src/remarks.txt (Score:5, Funny)
Remarks
Kap Petrov:
I'd say this version's mouse polling system is buggy, it can fuck up from the keyboard, and because
of the polling nature, processes will not run unless mouse is being actively moved. In cavemen terms,
this version is fucking retarded.
Vincent392 (RE TO KAP):
Fuck, someone is gotta fix that.
Kap Petrov (RE TO VINCENT):
Surprise surprise, that's fucking me, because none of yall are fucking contributing shit.
DCOM? No thanks! (Score:2)
DCOM is a ready-made vector for intrusion and fragile components. If you're going to build a Windows "clone" that's more secure, skip DCOM support!
Kind of like meatless meat (Score:3)
Once you get those veggie patties to taste just like the real thing, they're just as bad for you as the real thing.
By the time you copy enough of Windows functionality to make it run Windows software, you've also copied all the vulnerabilities to malware and tracking and everything else you didn't want in Windows in the first place.
Doomed. (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sad to say that this project is doomed as an open source project.
The signs are obvious to anyone that know anything about open source projects:
* No offbeat acronym for a name
* No overly elaborate build system
* No absurd dependency list to compile it
* Not written in a niche language
* Doesn't depend on a specific compiler
* Aims to be compatible instead of insisting on incompatibilities to snub the original
The only thing they have going for them is having a terrible UI but I have no faith that they are going to keep it around as long as possible, continually adding more secret keyboard shortcuts that they expect every user to use.
At this point, I think the only way they can salvage this project is by rename it YAWAI (Yet Another Win32 API Implementation) which is both and acronym and potentially offensive and thus would ensure the survival of the project.
It's so tragic when you see open source projects that have such promise make such obvious mistakes.
Re: (Score:2)
April first isn't for another 3 weeks. (Score:2)
I mean it is astonishing that this prodigy has been able to re-implement in basically a weekend what it has taken the Wine project three decades to accomplish.
Thank you AI coding assistant (Score:2)
I mean it is astonishing that this prodigy has been able to re-implement in basically a weekend what it has taken the Wine project three decades to accomplish.
Thank you AI coding assistant. :-)
Games (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
>"Unless it can play Windows games like a champ, it's dead in the water."
Actually, there are many use cases for a free/FOSS MS-Windows clone that don't involve running games. But the point is still there. Few people actually *want* to run MS-Windows, they just want to run some application that runs under MS-Windows. They might also want to have some familiarity with what they have used in the past.
It is unlikely something like will ever run most MS-Windows programs without issues. And even if it coul