Excuse me as well for answering your question to a question with a bunch of questions.

> why would you need a new kernel?

1. Why wouldn't you? Requirements change. Would you expect humans 100+ years from now to be hacking on BSD?

2. What if it's (kernel hacking, that is) the only domain you enjoy working in? Different programmers have different interests. Should you just give up to work on something `popular'?

> Besides, if you really want a new kernel, why should it be win32 binary compatible?

3. How else would you expect to find users and contributors when many people already have their own $OS_OF_CHOICE?

Also, consider the year of the initial ReactOS release: 1998. A FOSS WinNT clone would've made sense at that time.

:-) actually 1998 voids your argument for "building a kernel from scratch". It's not any more a new kernel in fact :)

see my other comment in this thread about the business case. Without a business case, any exciting project would eventually disappear.

> see my other comment in this thread about the business case.

OK, I read it and I think you've a point.

> Without a business case, any exciting project would eventually disappear.

I don't understand what you're arguing here. What is the `business case' for GNU Emacs?

ok, name it "motivation" instead of Business case.

for GNU Emacs, the motivation is completely clear: it's a tool for developers, and some of those developers contribute and make it better for everyone.

For ReactOS... ok, someone seems to have a motivation, but that's completely beyond my understanding :)