![]() Maybe we should all chip in to see what can be done. The answer is simple: There are thousands of applications that were written for XP that are still used by tens of thousands of people and, if there's platform support for this "ancient" software, these users could be easily getting significant value out of their Windows XP software for another 10 years. Now, some people have queried why XP or a replacement for it would be of any use given that the IT industry is always evolving to more powerful platforms and applications. Luckily, it looks like the ReactOS developers are stepping things up because they recently started a fundraising campaign so they can hire dedicated programming staff and have, in just under one month, raised €4,410 of a target €30,000. The problem is that ReactOS development has been in progress for 14 years! This is, in part, because it has been a FOSS project and hasn't had the economic drivers that a commercial project would involve, but also because creating an operating system from scratch that can flawlessly support Windows applications is not an undertaking for the faint of heart. There are lots of potentially huge improvements that ReactOS could deliver compared to XP including an applications manager that's reminiscent of the Apple App Store or the Android Market. The developers do, however, warn: "Please bear in mind that ReactOS 0.3.14 is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is not recommended for everyday use." Woo-hoo! And I really like one of the slogans the developers use: "Change your OS, not your software!" The ultimate goal of ReactOS is to allow you to remove Windows and install ReactOS without the end user noticing the change." The developers continue to get us excited by saying, "Additionally, the look and feel of the Windows operating system is used, such that people accustomed to the familiar user interface of Windows would find using ReactOS straightforward. This will allow your Windows applications and drivers to run as they would on your Windows system." The developers explain that the main goal "is to provide an operating system which is binary compatible with Windows. This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture." Interesting, but the story gets better: "Written completely from scratch, aims to follow the Windows-NT architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level. One of the comments highlighted a FOSS project that could make it irrelevant whether or not Microsoft makes the code available, ReactOS, an operating system "based on the design of Windows XP/2003." I suggested that because XP and Office 2003 are still useful and relevant to so many people, Microsoft should do the right thing and release the source code to both as open source, and a lively discussion in the online article's comment section ensued. ![]() Your mileage may vary.Īnother followup is for something I wrote about in my Backspin column, the scheduled demise of Microsoft's support for Windows XP and Office 2003 on April 9, 2014. ![]() Even so, now that I've compared Microsoft's OS X RDP client to the free, open source (FOSS) alternative I wrote about, CoRD, I much prefer the latter - it produces a better looking rendition of the remote desktop. I usually believe vendors when they say something doesn't work (but often I don't believe the opposite), but maybe I should rethink that rule. I checked this out and, indeed, Keith is correct RDP 2.1.1 does indeed work, but how foolish of me to believe Microsoft because on its Web site it warns: "Note Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (version 2.1.1) is not intended for use with Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion) or later." Pretty much the same thing is written twice more on the download page.Ĭlick to see: Reader Keith Rinaldo's OS X 10.7 desktop running Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client 2.1 which Microsoft says doesn't work I have been using RDP 2.1 since I installed OS X 10.7.0, through all iterations up to my current OS X 10.7.3 (awaiting a reboot to install 10.7.4) and RDP Client 2.1.1." Reader Keith Rinaldo wrote to tell me, "I can confirm that Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client 2.1 works perfectly fine on OS X 10.7. A few weeks ago I wrote about Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and noted that "Microsoft's RDP client, Remote Desktop Connection Client 2.1 doesn't support OS X 10.7 or later.". ![]()
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