What makes you think being more popular, as popular, or even a fraction as popular as Windows (which is used on billions of devices) is a goal?
I can think of some niche use-cases. For example, my mother owns a perfectly functional printer and spent quite a lot of money on ink cartridges, only to have the manufacturer refuse to provide drivers beyond Windows 7 (and never bothered supporting anything but Windows). React OS could allow her to continue using this otherwise functioning printer until she runs out of ink and cannot buy any more cartridges.
There are probably tons of other weird devices out there that are beyond their official EOL and require some previous version of Windows to continue to be used. There is also a lot of software that people depend on but which is either EOL or the original software vendor is defunct, and React OS can provide a compatible environment to run that software on regardless of what Microsoft chooses to do with more recent versions of Windows. It may seem crazy and there are probably a variety of security issues with running unsupported software, but for some people the risk will be worth it.
I can think of some niche use-cases. For example, my mother owns a perfectly functional printer and spent quite a lot of money on ink cartridges, only to have the manufacturer refuse to provide drivers beyond Windows 7 (and never bothered supporting anything but Windows). React OS could allow her to continue using this otherwise functioning printer until she runs out of ink and cannot buy any more cartridges.
There are probably tons of other weird devices out there that are beyond their official EOL and require some previous version of Windows to continue to be used. There is also a lot of software that people depend on but which is either EOL or the original software vendor is defunct, and React OS can provide a compatible environment to run that software on regardless of what Microsoft chooses to do with more recent versions of Windows. It may seem crazy and there are probably a variety of security issues with running unsupported software, but for some people the risk will be worth it.