Still not as usable as it needs to be and now the main use case for a lot of Windows machines, gaming, is being taken care of in GNU/Linux.
Gotta strike while the iron is hot.
ReactOS is mostly about the reimplementation of an older NT kernel, with a focus on driver compatibility. Their ultimate goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP such that any driver written for XP would work. That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
In most of those applications, you just leave the computer be and don't touch it. In some cases (especially medical devices) you may not even be allowed to touch it for legal/compliance reasons. If the hardware dies, you most likely find the exact same machine (or something equivalent) and run the same OS - there are many scenarios where replacing the computer with something modern is not viable (lack of the correct I/O interfaces, computer is too fast, etc.)
If there were software bugs which could impact operations, they probably would have arisen during the first few years when there was a support contract. As for security issues - you lock down access and disconnect from any network with public internet access.
All that assumes that ReactOS is a perfect drop-in replacement for whatever version of Windows you are replacing, and that is probably not a good assumption.
A factory has a CNC machine delivered fifteen years ago that's been run by the same computer all along. The computer eventually gives up the ghost, the original IT guy who got the vendor's drivers and installed them on that computer with an FCKGW copy of WinXP is long gone. Asking the current IT guy, the easiest solution (in a hypothetical timeline where a usable ReactOS exists) is to take the cheapest computer available, install ReactOS, throw in drivers from the original vendor CD at the bottom of some shelf and call it a day.
> ReactOS is mostly about the reimplementation of an older NT kernel, with a focus on driver compatibility. Their ultimate goal is to be a drop-in replacement for Windows XP such that any driver written for XP would work. That's much more relevant to industrial applications where some device is controlled by an ancient computer because the vendor originally provided drivers for NT 5.0 or 5.1 which don't work on anything modern.
Fifteen years ago, they could have focused on both the industrial and consumer use cases. There were a lot of people who really didn't want to leave Windows XP in 2010-11, even just for their personal use.
Admittedly, FLOSS wasn't nearly as big of a thing back then like it is now. A larger share of GNU/Linux and BSD installs were on servers at the time, so it was a community mainly focused on commercial and industrial applications. Maybe that's what drove their focus.
I think by now ReactOS is best viewed as an enthusiast research / challenge project with no practical use, like GNU Hurd. Just as Hurd is interesting in terms of how kernels can be done, but isn't a viable candidate for practical use, ReactOS is now in the same category. Very interesting as an exercise in reimplementing NT from scratch using clean room techniques but no longer a system that has a shot at gaining any adoption.