Forget Windows 11 -- ReactOS, the Microsoft-free Windows operating system, just got a massive update! Download it now
Just as you can get versions of Android that are free from Google, including LineageOS and /e/OS, so there are also alternative Windows operating systems not developed by Microsoft.
One of the most best examples of this is ReactOS, an open-source project that aims to provide a free and compatible replacement for Windows, removing all the things you don’t want in Microsoft’s OS, such as spying/telemetry, adverts, and so on.
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It’s far from perfect -- ReactOS is still in alpha (and will likely be for years still) and not yet ready to be your everyday operating system. It also has an undeniable retro look and feel to it, but it can run your Windows software and hardware, and the OS has just had a huge update, its first in over three years.
ReactOS 0.4.15 offers Plug and Play fixes, audio improvements, memory management tweaks, registry healing, improvements to accessories and system tools including Notepad, Paint, RAPPS, the Input Method Editor, and shell improvements.
This is the largest release to date with nearly 8 times more commits than were made in 0.4.14.
Hopefully we won't need to wait quite so long for the next big release. The team says future improvements will include UEFI support, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), a new graphical installer, a new NTFS filesystem driver, power management, and newer application support.
You can download ReactOS 0.4.15 here.
Image Credit: Yuri Arcurs / Dreamstime.com