ReactOS not listed under OS

[gabriel]

Dear VirtualBox support, I test ReactOS with VirtualBox, it works ver well, it's even listed in the OS matrix, but it isn't available as an OS in VirtualBox itself, could you please add it? Best regards.

Gabriel.

[vicmarcal]

Oh!Yes. It would be cool if you can add this enhancement.From the requirements point of view, actually i set it as a Windows XP professional machine.So adding ReactOS as an OS in VBOX is just duplicating the Windows XP entry and just renaming to ReactOS :).5 lines of code :).It took a little for me (trial-error) to realize that.I think i´m not alone in this :) Thanks

Carlos Martínez

[Aeneas]

It would be indeed nice to have an entry for ReactOS.

[erniethemilkman]

Sounds like a good idea, i would very much like to see ReactOS as an entry for VBox and it would make my enjoyment of the software much more.. enjoyable?

[Davy Bartoloni]

:) nice idea

[nathanieljp]

I too think that this idea would be a useful addition as a lot of users may be unsure of which OS to select when installing ReactOS.

Nathaniel JP

[AlexEagar]

I would like this feature, not for its usefulness, but because it would be an advertisement for ReactOS. Is it too much to hope, that a few C developers might find out about and become interested in ReactOS through a VirtualBox drop down menu? Perhaps you could change the 'Microsoft Windows' operating system option to just plain 'Windows' and then add 'ReactOS' to the version drop down. As it is, I would probably choose the 'Other Windows' option if I was installing ReactOS. I hope ReactOS works well with that option.

Disclaimer: I learned about this suggestion from ​a thread on the ReactOS forum and a large portion of the reason why I'm leaving this comment is to include this disclaimer. o_O

[chris]

i vote YES, Virtualbox should have a entry for ReactOS in the OS menu

[Klaus Espenlaub]

I knew from the beginning that this is a lobby ticket... AlexEagar brought it to the point: it'd be an advertisement for ReactOS. Exactly that argument makes me extremely wary. It's opening Pandora's box. There are hundreds of operating systems out there which would ask for the same. In the end the OS selection would totally get out of hands and everyone suffers.

After all, VirtualBox (unlike other virtualizers) attaches extremely little meaning to the OS selection. It mostly selects the icon and a bunch of defaults (memory size, disk size etc.) which you can adjust yourself as well.

[gabriel]

Replying to klaus:

I knew from the beginning that this is a lobby ticket...

This isn't a lobby ticket. It's just a request to make new ReactOS users testing easier in VirtualBox.

AlexEagar brought it to the point: it'd be an advertisement for ReactOS. Exactly that argument makes me extremely wary. It's opening Pandora's box. There are hundreds of operating systems out there which would ask for the same. In the end the OS selection would totally get out of hands and everyone suffers.

That's not necessarily true, so are you advertising IBM OS/2 ? VirtualBox obviously decides what to include there, it's up to you the choice. From my point of view, there won't be a need to ask for this sooner or later, as it will become natural to see it there among the other choices.

After all, VirtualBox (unlike other virtualizers) attaches extremely little >meaning to the OS selection. It mostly selects the icon and a bunch of defaults >(memory size, disk size etc.) which you can adjust yourself as well.

This is true for all the operating systems you list in VirtualBox, why bothering then ? Just because it makes installation a bit easier for the simple user.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

We are not advertising OS/2. It was included for valid business reasons.

We get requests every day to include OSes and need to draw the line somewhere. Let's not start a huge discussion about it.

[AlexEagar]

Here's a clarification of my vote for this feature. Although a ReactOS option would be very useful to users, the reason why I personally want it is for the exposure. A line has already been drawn as to which operating systems to include, namely those already included in VirtualBox. That line includes much more obscure, unimportant and obsolete operating systems than ReactOS. ReactOS is an extremely important operating with a very active community of users and developers. It should definitely be included in the list of operating systems. The only reason that I can think of that you wouldn't want to include ReactOS is to pander to the wishes of Microsoft, which reflects very poorly on your product from a non-Microsoft perspective.

[Joshua Bailey]

I've been using VirtualBox since it was being developed by Innotek, so I guess you could say I'm a bit of a fan by now. I use it for various versions of Windows, FreeDOS, Linux, and even Haiku.

Ultimately, though, one of the main reasons I started using VirtualBox is because it was the best solution to running ReactOS in a virtual environment. QEMU was kind of slow, Virtual PC crashed (unsurprisingly), and I'm too poor to afford VMWare. I've been using Virtualbox to test ReactOS for years now. It's even mentioned on the ReactOS website as a suggested environment now.

I'm not going to accuse the Virtualbox team of pandering to Microsoft, but I do think that considering that ReactOS is at least as relevant as TurboLinux or QNX. It won't be the end of the world for me if you don't add it, but it would be a bit more convenient if I didn't have to do guesswork every time I redo my ReactOS virtual machine. Virtualbox is already an awesome piece of software, recognizing ReactOS would make it even better to me.

[monkeynut]

It would be good for this feature to be added. It's a little confusing when setting up VB sometimes, I think this feature will be very useful for newbies who are new to VMs.

[rabbitheck]

VBOX rulez but will rulez much more adding ReactOS

[vicmarcal]

Replying to klaus:

I knew from the beginning that this is a lobby ticket... AlexEagar brought it to the point: it'd be an advertisement for ReactOS. Exactly that argument makes me extremely wary. It's opening Pandora's box. There are hundreds of operating systems out there which would ask for the same. In the end the OS selection would totally get out of hands and everyone suffers.

Pandora box is opened since under Linux OS appears a list of Distros.This is a worse Pandora Box, since there are zillions of Linux Distros, and i didnt see anyone complaining about adding a selection of them, which can lead other Distros asking to be included in that list(as you suggests).

Also, ReactOS is not a Distro, but a Main OS (as Linux is). There are ReactOS versions as React-IT, and i am not asking to include these Distros, just the Main OS.

About advertisement: ReactOS doesnt need an extra advertisement.Of course an extra-advertisement coming from a GPL proyect,as Vbox, is a nice way of helping other GPL projects,but in the same way ReactOS promotes GPL projects including GPL software in its "Downloader!" as Scummvm,7zip,DosBox ,VLC,Samba,and 40 more GPL apps. Anyway, ReactOS is a well known project as the results of Sourceforge Community Choice Awards 09 has shown:

ReactOS won the 2nd Award in: "The Best project". (First one was PortableApps,which is not an OS) ReactOS won the 2nd Award in: "The one is going to change the way of doing things".(First one was Portableapps, which is not an OS)

So it´s a pity that this GPL OS which has won the Open source Community recognition is not included in this GPL Virtualizer.

[jeditobe]

Please, Do rethink the idea of this report!

We have a lot of confused Vbox users, who can not setup Vbox VM for ReactOS properly. Adding ReactOS entry could help to solve this issue!

[jeditobe]

Replying to klaus:

It's opening Pandora's box. There are hundreds of operating systems out there which would ask for the same. In the end the OS selection would totally get out of hands and everyone suffers.

So that is why Vbox has more than 20 entries only for various Linux distros, but Vbox team does not want to add a single entry for the ReactOS (the core version of OS, not some custom distro)

[ChiefPilot]

You have changed the Windows XP profile, which previously was perfect for ReactOS, and now there is an unsupported network card. Make a template for ReactOS, please.

[BigMouse]

Oracle, please add the best open source os (ReactOS) to Virtual Box. Profile as in Windows XP, but with a network card that was in the old VirtualBox.

[BigMouse]

Icon for Virtual Box

[Dimay]

Oracle, please add the ReactOS Virtual Box, All other parameters as in windows xp, with network card PCnet-FAST III (AM79C973), beause network card Intel PRO 1000 not provided initially in ReactOS.

[Br0ke]

It would be nice to see ReactOS in OSes list – much simpler to create machines and debug ReactOS :)

[jeditobe]

Replying to klaus:

I knew from the beginning that this is a lobby ticket... AlexEagar brought it to the point: it'd be an advertisement for ReactOS.

Okay, after these 8 years I start to really understand you. How much should I pay to you for adding one ReactOS pre-configured configuration into the next releases of Vbox?

If you still think it would be an advertisement for ReactOS (very strange way of advertisement), please give me contacts of your salesmen.