Drivers & Software

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ReactOS is an open-source OS that is based off an NT kernel, so it can run Windows based programs. However, lots of AMD (and many other) drivers don't work. Either the driver refuses to install, doesn't install correctly, or crashes and destroys the OS. While this could be because the OS is in alpha mode, I suspect that it could be because AMD never designed exe files with ReactOS in mind. I really hope AMD takes this seriously and will actually help out. Better driver support leads to more OS users. I hope AMD will make a 32 bit ReactOS driver for all new drivers. 

Thanks,

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[codexllll]

The ReactOS project's plan is to be compatible with the same drivers and applications that work on the version of Windows NT that they're targeting (NT 5.x aka WinXP/Server2003 as of this writing), so altering AMD's drivers to work on the current (alpha) versions of ReactOS is likely not really a good idea. I'm sure any help AMD can offer to the ReactOS project would be greatly appreciated, but it would be much better for ReactOS if AMD were to make their Windows drivers open source, than if they were to alter them to make them work on alpha versions of ReactOS. Then the ReactOS developers could see what the drivers are trying to do, and fix the issues in ReactOS that prevent them from working properly.

[reactions]

Hi, thanks for replying!

I understand the point that you are making. However, it could be more than a year or two before we can start installing, since the drivers, for the most part, are for 64-bit Windows 7. Until the kernel for that is released, I won't be able to use Blender on ReactOS, which sucks, since I'm trying to make it more user friendly to a Windows 10/newer user. Also, more driver support lead to more users, which will increase funding and development.