ReactOS, Sistem Operasi Gratis Serasa Windows

Pernah mendengar atau membaca tentang ReactOS?

Mungkin bagi anda yang senang berselancar di dunia maya untuk sekedar membaca informasi perkembangan dunia IT, akan menemui artiket tentang hal tersebut. Mesti tak setenar Windows maupun tak seperti kemajuan Linux, ReactOS memiliki karakteristik yang merupakan kolaborasi antara keduanya. ReactOS merupakan sebuah project yang dikembangkan oleh ReactOS Foundation yang berbasis di Moscow, Rusia. 

Project pengembangan ReactOS bertujuan untuk menciptakan sebuah sistem operasi yang kompatibel dengan aplikasi dan driver yang dikembangkan berbasis sistem operasi Windows NT namun bersifat free dan open source. Hal inilah yang menjadikan ReactOS menjadi sistem operasi open source layaknya Linux namun serasa Windows. ReactOS bisa menjadi alternatif bagi yang ingin menggunakan sistem operasi layaknya Windows namun tidak perlu terbebani dengan masalah lisensi. 

Bagi anda yang sudah terbiasa menggunakan Windows, tentunya tidak asing lagi dengan antarmuka yang disediakan oleh ReactOS. Desain antarmuka yang mirip menjadikan poin penting bagi pengguna sehingga tidak perlu usaha ekstra untuk mempelajarinya.

Beberapa fitur maupun karakteristik penting dari ReactOS antara lain :

Compatible

Change your OS, not your software!

The ReactOS project reimplements a state-of-the-art and open NT-like operating system based on the NT architecture. It comes with a WIN32 subsystem, NT driver compatibility and a handful of useful applications and tools. ReactOS combines the power and strengths of the NT kernel – which is well known for its extensibility, portability, reliability, robustness, performance and compatibility – with Win32 compatibility.

Secure

ReactOS has been designed for high security; it doesn't share some of the common security flaws with other operating systems. On a closer view, real computer viruses (which are normal applications) are not as widespread anymore. Most malicious applications are scripts that target common network software like browsers and email applications and software with built-in scripting support like various Office products. Obviously, more widespread systems with a large user base are more likely to be attacked by bad software writers than minor systems like Macintosh and Linux.

Lightweight

In short, ReactOS is designed to be powerful and lightweight. You can think of the term "lightweight" in the good old fashion of Win95, a consistent user interface and small bundle of very common and useful tools. Although lightweight, ReactOS offers a lot in comparison to Windows 95, with an up-to-date experience as well as built from scratch on a rock solid NT core.

Open

'Free' as in 'free speech' and as in 'free beer'
ReactOS is free and open source software, the source code of the whole system is available for free. Most parts are licensed under GNU General Public License, some modules have other licenses like BSD .

Reliable

Open your windows to freedom

ReactOS has been written from scratch since 1996, a rock solid NT re-implementation, and therefore a reliable and robust operating system for tasks ranging from embedded micro computer to personal computer, workstations to server cluster, mainframes and super computers. ReactOS incorporates many design decisions from other operating system families like UNIX, VMS, OS/2 and of course NT and is meant as 'the' new platform that serves all. 

Portability

The ReactOS operating system design is able to provide portability across families of processors, such as Intel x86 and even provide portability across different processor architectures, such as CISC and RISC. There is only one single OS core, the kernel; porting ReactOS to other architectures only involves porting the hardware abstraction layer, the lowest part that talks directly with the platform hardware.

Extensible

ReactOS is flexible and extensible by design. ReactOS is probably one of the most versatile operating system platform, especially thanks to its NT kernel and the open source nature. ReactOS can be extended with the help of so called "subsystems" to provide support for legacy applications from other platforms. For example, a POSIX subsystem would provide compatibility layer with various flavors of UNIX applications.

Object Based

ReactOS is not an object-oriented system in the strictest sense of the term, but it does use objects to represent internal system resources. Software objects are a combination of computer instructions and data that model the behavior of things, real or imagined, in the world. 

Untuk menjalankan ReactOS pada perangkat komputer anda tidak dibutuhkan spesifikasi yang tinggi, syarat minimum sistem yang diperlukan adalah 

• x86 processor, Pentium-class or newer
• 96MB of RAM, 256MB recommended
• 650MB of free space minimum, 5GB+ recommended if you intend to do testing
• VGA compatible graphics card, VESA BIOS 2.0+

Bagi anda yang ingin mencoba menjalankan ReactOS pada virtual mesin, beberapa aplikasi virtual mesin yang disarankan yaitu VirtualBox, VMWare, QEMU. Seperti layaknya Linux, ReactOS juga menyediakan Live CD jika anda ingin mencoba tanpa menginstall. 

Download ReactOS sekarang !!