HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why has no one made an OS based on the windows NT kernel?

4 points by earenndil ↗ HN
There was a lot of backlash to windows 10. Particularly in regards to advertisement and telemtry, but also forced upgrades, cortana, and other such things. There were some programs that attempted to partially 'declutter' windows 10, but they're broadly unsuccessful because they're attacking the problem from the wrong angle. Why not attempt to build an OS based directly from the ground up on the winNT kernel without any of the rest of the windows 10 garbage, similar to what reactOS did, except instead of reimplementing win32, just using microsoft's existing implementation?

6 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 27.9 ms ] thread
adamnemecek
...cause it’s hard and encumbered with patents.
earenndil
Hard: it can't be harder than reactos, which had to create the OS and implement the kernel/win32.

Encumbered with patents: software patents aren't a thing in the EU.

chatmasta
Nobody said ReactOS was an easy project. In fact it’s probably one of the most impressive feats of reverse engineering in open source. I would rank its complexity and effort required on the same level as the Dolphin GameCube emulator.
[dead] anon_lastname
It's Microsoft's code so that would be illegal. This is why we have Gnu.
mailslot
To use Microsoft's Win32 implementation, is to use Windows. lol. The Win32 API is an entrypoint to the OS. It's a bit more than an interface to the kernel. Like saying .NET is the kernel.

The kernel is important, but it's a ton of other stuff (like what ReactOS is rebuilding) that's needed.