ReactOS "Open-Source Windows" Project Now Capable Of Running Half-Life 2 - Phoronix
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ReactOS "Open-Source Windows" Project Now Capable Of Running Half-Life 2
Written by Michael Larabel in Operating Systems on 5 July 2026 at 06:42 AM EDT. 53 Comments
One month ago it was exciting to see the open-source ReactOS operating system running Valve's Half-Life game. Little to realize less than 30 days later it would also be running Half-Life 2.
In early June, ReactOS as this "open-source Windows" platform implementing Windows software game/app and driver binary compatibility was running Half-Life. It was demoed with a Intel Sandy Bridge era desktop using NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS graphics.
The ReactOS project shared on X this weekend that the newer Half-Life 2 game is now up and running as well on this three decade old free software project. With a ReactOS nightly build, Half-Life 2 successfully ran with the game appearing to work nicely in-game. That user testing was done with a GeForce GTX 960 graphics card when installing the NVIDIA 368.61 legacy Windows driver. Plus installing Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Windows drivers too.
ReactOS user Aotori Hibiki showed off HL2 in action via a YouTube video:
Separately, this week also saw ReactOS introducing its first Windows NT6 system call as the first baby step toward Windows Vista and newer compatibility.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.
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