Open source Windows alternative ReactOS has reached a major milestone: the operating system can now be installed directly onto an NTFS drive partition. As reported by Phoronix, this development clears a long-standing hurdle and brings ReactOS closer to reaching beta. Previously, users needed a FAT32 partition for installation, which posed a practical barrier to achieving binary compatibility with Windows Server 2003.
NTFS, a proprietary Microsoft filesystem introduced with Windows XP in 2001, remains the standard for most Windows systems today. Despite the progress, ReactOS cautions that the new NTFS driver lacks caching, journaling, and security support, resulting in inferior performance. The team warned on X that potentially undiscovered bugs may still exist, advising even experienced OS tinkerers to proceed with caution.
While not yet a full Windows replacement, this update marks significant progress toward ReactOS’s goal of binary compatibility.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing