ReactOS Development Update: Ongoing Work, x64 Progress, and Future Release Plans

ReactOS is an open‑source operating system project that seeks binary compatibility with Windows applications and drivers, with its last update released in December 2021.

Although the original plan was to issue a new version every three months, development slowed after version 0.4.14, leading some users to believe the project was dead.

The project team clarified that ReactOS is still alive and will now release new versions based on quality criteria rather than a fixed quarterly schedule; a release must have a reasonable low regression count (no more than 20 bugs).

The next version is expected to bring many updates, but the exact release date has not been set; users can try nightly builds to experience new features.

The primary goal of ReactOS is to provide an operating system that can run Windows applications and drivers as if they were on Windows, offering a familiar user interface for those accustomed to Windows.

After 25 years of development, ReactOS remains in an alpha stage, with most achievements historically on the 32‑bit version, while recent progress shows promising advances in the x86_64 (x64) port.

The x64 port, previously unable to run or crashing immediately, now reaches a "barely runnable" state where the OS can operate without major issues, though stability and compatibility are still behind the 32‑bit version, and it cannot run x86 applications due to the lack of WoW64 support.

Beyond the x64 stability improvements, the team also highlighted enhancements to components such as the graphics editor, Notepad, security subsystem, and registry.

For more details, see the official ReactOS newsletter: https://reactos.org/blogs/newsletter-102/ .