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Comment by troymc | Hacker News Reader

They're also doing a kickstarter for Thorium Core:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thorium/thorium-core-cl...

"Thorium Core is an attempt to build a commercial operating system and cloud services platform, based on ReactOS, which is an Open Source implementation of the NT architecture seen in modern versions of Windows."

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I really like the idea of ReactOS in concept, so I'd pitch in if their Kickstarter wasn't so blatantly what I didn't want. Cloud services? Come on.

Same here. I can't get behind that cloud services idea. If they really wanted to just improve ReactOS and do something like was done with Mesa/OpenGL ( http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-improve-opengl-suppor... ), I'd be happy to pitch in.

Nothing is stopping anyone from only supporting the core ReactOS project. They take bitcoins, paypal, and wire transfers.

http://www.reactos.org/donations

I can see a possible market here, competing with Microsoft's licensing for cloud/virtual desktops. MS licensing is at best confusing, and in some cases quite horribly expensive. And obviously keeping the software open source but charging for cloud services is a relatively straightforward way to monetise free software.

If a non-cloud version comes out as a side effect then that's good for everyone.

So ... is this like Citrix + Windows? Replacing licensing costs of both Windows and Citrix would be a huge cost savings. It also would allow unlimited users.

It says Thorium Core is a commercialization. But ReactOS is open source. So is the cloud services part going to be proprietary? (Thus foiling my idea of a free Citrix replacement.)

It was my understanding that the licensing for windows on "cloud" workloads was actually pretty cheap and straightforward after the introduction of hyper-v -- isn't one licence per cpu socket -- run as many copies/vms as you want? Now for SQL server things can get more expensive...

Not to mention the difference in cost of having any licensing vs having no licensing.

Standard gives you two licensed virtual Windows OSes per two-sockets. Datacenter provides unlimited.

SQL Server's pricing is starting to follow Oracle, despite mocking Oracle's model before. SQL Server has different prices for different types of CPUs.

Ah, yes. I was thinking of Datacenter licensing.

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