Although the ReactOS project is still not rushing to dethrone Windows as the primary desktop OS, real changes are taking place. Recently, two major changes have been accepted into the main branch. The first concerns separate BootCD and LiveCD images, which are now combined into a single image (PR #7313). The second is a new ATA storage stack aware of Plug and Play for ATA and AHCI devices, with NT6+ level compatibility.
For now, a separate LiveCD still exists, but the emergence of a universal ReactOS image means that testing and installing ReactOS has become simpler, and the old-fashioned text-based installation interface is likely to soon be a thing of the past thanks to the new fully graphical installer from the Live mode of the unified image (youtube).
The introduction of the new ATA storage stack will result in much better compatibility with real hardware, including the ability to install the system and boot from a larger number of devices and even SCSI (PR #8932), than with the old UniATA driver.
Together, these two changes should bring the installation and usage process of ReactOS closer to that of Windows, as well as many Linux distributions. If you have faced issues with ReactOS on real hardware, now is the perfect time to try again and provide developers with detailed feedback on any remaining problems.
Note: All new features are absent in version 0.4.15 and are available for testing in the latest nightly builds of version 0.4.17.
Source: linux.org.ru
