>open source people complain Windows is worst OS
>open source people try to remake worst OS from scratch as ReactOS

I appreciate the talent and commitment this would need, but I honestly don't really understand why people would do this.

@alyx Windows is saddled with backward compatibility. ReactOS is responding to the same pressure: everyone wants (or, at the time, wanted; I don't know what people are up to these days) to run Windows software to get things done.

@throwaway1
Wouldn't ReactOS be forced to have a lot of the same backwards compatibility though? Or do they have a cut point after which they don't plan on supporting older software?

@alyx my point was that backwards compatibility is an anchor Microsoft is willing to bear. They don't want to have it, but they have to. It is almost their entire value proposition to customers.
ReactOS is trying to capitalize on that so that M$ isn't the only game in town for the product that their backwards compatibility supplies.
Think of it this way: compatibility with existing Windows software is a value add. There is market demand for that. Only Microsoft was able to provide that, and then things like Wine and ReactOS came along. Now Microsoft has gratis competition for something where they used to have a monopoly. It's not very strong competition, but it's not nothing. From the user's perspective, running software written for Windows is a feature.

@throwaway1
>from the user's perspective, running software written for Windows is a feature
True. In Linux + Wine's case it's great, cause it adds to all the features Linux has.
But for ReactOS, what other features does it bring?

I get that backwards compatibility is a saddle, a burden an anchor Windows carries. My point is, is ReactOS going to carry the same burden to the same degree? In which case what advantage will it have over Windows, since the backwards compatibility will surely slow it down just like Windows? So what's the point of choosing it over Windows?

Or will it have a cut off point to it's backwards compatibility and be focused more on "current" software compatibility? In which case I can envision it having a significant speed increase over Windows, but it may never be a complete replacement, since some software may never work.