I Tried the Only "Open Source" Windows Clone...

[00:00:00]So this is React OS, a free and open source operating system made for running Windows apps. And it doesn't use Unix or Linux kernel. It has its own custommade ent kernel just like Windows. So we can't say this is like Linux based operating system. No, it's more like a Windows operating system. And recently they have introduced a new anti- kernel which is compatible with Windows Vista and 7 applications. And overall, it has improved a lot since I checked it last time. It was back in 2022. This can even run a heavy Windows game called HalfLife 2, which is impressive. So, this is the official website, reacttos.org.

[00:00:41]Here we can download the latest stable version of React OS 0.4.15.

[00:00:47]Or we can try out the nightly bills.

[00:00:50]That's what I'm going to be trying out.

[00:00:51]So, I can try out the latest and greatest features. Okay. So, let's click on nightly bills. And here we're going to download the boot CD. This is almost like 100 MGB. So, let's click on it to download it. Now, you can install this on a real hardware, but it won't be compatible with modern hardware. I don't have a old hardware, so I'm just going to install this on virtual machine.

[00:01:14]First, we need to unzip the downloaded file. Then, we get the ISO file. Let's create a new machine. Give it a name and let's select the ISO file. Even from the ISO file, it has detected that we are using the Windows operating system, which technically isn't. So, here I'm going to change the Windows XP 32-bit to 64bit. Hopefully, it is now 64-bit. If it doesn't work, we can fall back and change it to 32-bit. Let's give it 8 GB of RAM. CPU, let's give it four cores.

[00:01:45]For the disk, let's give it like 50 GB.

[00:01:49]And let's click on finish. Oh, it says kernel driver not installed. Typical Linux problem. Shouldn't be a big deal.

[00:01:57]I don't think this is a good sign.

[00:01:59][laughter] I broke my Linux says kernel panic.

[00:02:02]Please reboot your computer. Yep, I think I broke my Linux install somehow.

[00:02:08]So, this is one of the reason why I like to try out Linux and actually use it on hardware. I was trying to fix the issue of Virtual Box. Now, here we are. It's completely broken. I'll have to install React OS on Windows. Okay, here we are inside the Windows and let's create a virtual machine here. Okay, this is the bootloadader of React OS. We can launch a setup or live environment. Let's actually do a live environment graphics mode. And from here, we can actually install this. Look at that. From 1996 to 2026, the ReactS team has been working on this operating system for 30 years.

[00:02:48]That's crazy. [laughter] Let's go through the setup. Run React Otos live CD. Install React OS. You know what?

[00:02:55]We're going to install this. You can see the UI looks like the Windows XP error.

[00:03:00]Welcome to the Reacts setup wizard.

[00:03:03]Important information. React OS is in alpha stage. It is not feature complete and is under heavy development even after 30 years. I mean, you're trying to make a operating system that can run Windows apps and Windows isn't open source. And you have created a custom kernel for it. That's impressive. Here, we're going to select our drive and click next. And file system. So, it supports FAT, FAT32, and BTRFS. You know, the normal Windows runs on MBR or GPT type of file system. I don't think FAT and FAT 32 are good for running a operating system. And I have seen BTRFS on Linux. It's a modern file system. So we're going to select that and click okay. And I confirm that all the installation settings are correct and blah blah blah. Okay. So let's do install. Now it's installing the operating system. Look at that. EXE thingy is running there. The.exe DL those are the Windows related apps and drivers. Restart your computer. The first React OS installation step has completed successfully. Okay, let's restart. Welcome to the React OS setup wizard. This wizard installs React OS on your computer. The wizard needs to gather some information about you and your computer to set up React OS properly. Okay. And we need to download these open-source project thingies like wine. They're using a lot of other things in here [laughter] from the Linux tools. Okay, let's click next. So here installation type React OS server default React Otos workstation React OS server core. So I don't know which one to choose. Okay, let's just go with the default one. I guess you can customize React OS for different regions and languages. Let's give it a name KB. And we don't need the password. Time and date looks good. Select the theme you prefer. Wow, there are multiple themes.

[00:05:04]Really think I'm just going to go with the Mizu. It looks modern a little bit.

[00:05:09]It doesn't have a dark mode, but it looks clean. Let's go with the typical settings. Optional components. Would you like to download and install them? Yes, let's install them. They're probably useful. Okay, it restarted one more time and hopefully this time it will let us use the desktop. Yes. Yes, it is fully installed. First, let's actually figure out how to make the screen resolution bigger because this is very tiny out of the box. Oh, look at that. Display appearance settings. Oh, look at that. I found the resolution area here. So, it's under display and then settings. Let's make it 1080p. It has a slider instead of you typing or selecting the resolution. Look at that. That's 1080p.

[00:05:55]Let's apply. And it works. Can I change the DPI? So, you know, uh, it looks bigger. Let's do large DPI. It has 120.

[00:06:06]It didn't do anything. Oh, the main thing that makes everything bigger is scaling. So, it doesn't have a scaling.

[00:06:12]Look at the control panel. It looks just like the Windows control panel. Now, there is a file on the desktop called readme. Let's open it and read. What is React OS? React OS is an open-source effort to develop a quality operating system that is compatible with applications and drivers written for the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating system NT4 2000 XP 2003 WISDA and 7. So it can also run the apps that are made for Windows 7. Although currently focused on Windows Server 2003, he is always keeping eye on towards compatibility with Windows Vista and future Windows NT releases. Is React OS legal? Yes, we are. All the code of React OS has been written from scratch by our developers. Okay. I was hoping to try out the anti- kernel 6 cuz I saw the news about it. So right now even though I'm using the development build, it's still using the anti- kernel 5.2 which is equal to Windows XP anti- kernel. So this is the user interface of this operating system. You have the taskbar just like Windows. There is even a task manager actually. Look at that. It looks just like the Windows task manager. And then we have the start menu. Then we have the settings. Here we can open the control panel. Now the real question is can we access the internet? There is a internet browser. Let's launch it. It's Wine Internet Explorer and it actually works. It's using the DuckDuck Go search engine. So, let's search for something.

[00:07:43]Maybe my name. Yes, it found my website here. Can we Can we browse the website?

[00:07:50]Yes, it opened the website. Website looks broken, but it's actually the Internet Explorer that we are using.

[00:07:58]It's outdated. Can we download like Chrome or something? Okay, let's do the Chrome here. The Chrome website didn't load properly. [laughter] It's It's completely broken. All I see is the Chrome logo and the content inside is completely broken. Maybe there is other way to download it. There is this application manager. Let's open that.

[00:08:20]Ooh, updating the database. React OS application manager. So, they have their own app manager. So, there are some really popular apps that I can already see. This one is 7zip and it looks like it's the latest version of 7zip. It's installable. So, let's install it. I want to try out the different browser.

[00:08:39]Ooh, look at that. Even the Chrome is available. It's version 49. It's not the latest one. So, let's actually download the Chrome 49, the official one. Let's also download the Chromium XP1. It kind of feels clunky inside the virtual machine. Look at this. I'm trying to move this window around and it's rendering this window weirdly and it's been over 2 minutes and it's still installing the Chrome 49 and right now it's completely frozen. I'm trying to open the start menu. It's not doing anything. I'm trying to launch the task manager by right-clicking and I launch another thing like recycle bin or something. Nope, they're also not accessible. The only thing that is working right now is the application manager and this installing box. Oh. Oh.

[00:09:25]Oh. Something happened. Something happened. All the windows went down.

[00:09:29]Okay. The Chrome is installed. More app you open, more laggy it gets. And it's frozen again cuz it's installing the Chromium. There is this internet download manager. You know, it's a really popular software. So, it's a trial. Yeah, it's a premium software, but you can download the trial for free and then you have to activate it. I don't know if it works. Let's download it. It's installed. Let's try to launch it. Yes, it works. This is really popular program for Windows and it works. Games and fun. I don't think the virtual machine will be able to handle the games. This one, Balloon Fight. It's a Nintendo game. Oh, remake of Nintendo game. Balloon Fight. Okay. Okay. Okay.

[00:10:13]The Linux game is also available here called Super Tucks. This looks like the fun game. Death Rally. Let's download it. The drivers are also available here even for Nvidia. That's interesting. So we do have some productivity applications too. Notepad++ the only office. Will it work? I think the to get the best experience we need to try this on a actual hardware. This kind of feels clunky on virtual machine.

[00:10:41]So let's try the death rally. Is it running? Nope. I crashed the system again. Or maybe I just need to wait for it to load. Wake me up when it's done.

[00:10:52]I'm going to go to sleep. Yep, the entire system is frozen. It's been more than 10 minutes. It didn't do anything.

[00:11:00]It didn't launch itself. So, let's force close this. And I don't have a old computer to test this. Maybe let's try some programs that we have installed.

[00:11:12]Sevenzip. I think it will work. Yeah, without any issue. It's a lightweight program. Wow. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

[00:11:19]Wait, wait. What are you doing? Wait.

[00:11:22]Stop. It has some issues when you try this on virtual machine. That's for sure. What happened to the Chrome? Can we search for things? It looks like we can't. Let's go to my computer and open the file explorer and let's go program files. Where did the Chrome go? Or is it like installed in another directory that I don't know. I mean, if this was a real computer, it could have been completely different experience for real. I can't do anything in here. Oh, let's launch the balloon fight. Okay, this one works cuz it's not 3D. Oh, it crashed. I think for the best experience, we need the real hardware. Okay, I have never played this type of game before. I don't know how to play card games. I wish I had old computer to test this thing. you know, the virtual machine experience isn't that great. Maybe it's not that well optimized for, you know, virtual machines. And yeah, that's it with this video. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions or have any suggestions for me, you can always do the comment and we can have some chitchat in the comment section, too. Yeah, that's it.

[00:12:28]I'll see you in the next one. Take care of yourself and have fun. Bye-bye.