ReactOS reaches milestone with bootable NTFS driver
ReactOS's NTFS driver has matured enough to install and run the operating system, though caching, journaling, and security features remain unimplemented.
Summary
ReactOS, the open-source Windows-compatible operating system, has achieved a significant milestone with its NTFS file-system driver now capable of handling installation and daily use. NTFS formatting support has also been added. The project notes this brings it closer to a long-awaited beta release. However, the driver still lacks performance-critical features like caching, plus journaling and security support.
What's still missing in ReactOS NTFS
- No caching: disk I/O is slower than other NTFS implementations
- No journaling: crash recovery and metadata integrity features absent
- No security support: ACLs and permissions not yet handled
- NTFS formatting: newly added alongside read/write for installation
- Undiscovered bugs: project acknowledges possible remaining issues
Why it matters
This milestone strengthens ReactOS's viability as a free Windows alternative for legacy software and hardware compatibility scenarios. The remaining gaps in caching and security will need to close before broader production use becomes practical.
Original reference: www.phoronix.com →