ReactOS (Windows for the Free)

[E6600]

Originally Posted by Gnu

Though, I would definitely miss the enhanced outlook web access for my work email, which only works in IE..

You can use FireFox and ThunderBird. And I'm sure once ReactOS is 100% compatible with Windows, you can run IE and Outlook just fine.

[chedabob]

Originally Posted by Gnu

According to Wikipedia, it has its own kernel, written from scratch. Since what makes Linux is the kernel, I don't understand why you said that..

I got it mixed up with a Linux distro that was headed in the same direction, except the goal of that project (I've forgotten its name) was to have the heart of Linux running underneath, but with a GUI that provided all of the features of Windows XP.

[Gnu]

Originally Posted by chedabob

I got it mixed up with a Linux distro that was headed in the same direction, except the goal of that project (I've forgotten its name) was to have the heart of Linux running underneath, but with a GUI that provided all of the features of Windows XP.

Haha, I think that is called Lindows.

[chedabob]

Originally Posted by Gnu

Haha, I think that is called Lindows.

It wasn't Lindows, because I remember using that before Microsoft pwned them and then they started charging and turned into Linspire.

What I said still stands though: It's an awful long way from being useful, and at its heart it's still a different kernel. Right now, they have little/no USB support. Windows 98 had USB support. They are a long way behind Windows. Software wise, they are pretty close to XP, but hardware wise, they still suffer from the same problems as Linux. Wine is good enough for the average user, but it's still clunky and unintuitive.

[rounds1]

Isn't there a porn version called Dildows?

[E6600]

It's now called Linspire and it isn't free nor free. As is neither in price nor freedom!

[chedabob]

Linspire doesn't look like Windows. The distro I'm talking about had a proper Windows theme, and was configured in such a way that Wine ran almost completely transparently i.e. Out of the box, there was no configuring Wine, and all the usual Linux stuff was hidden away.

[E6600]

Originally Posted by chedabob

Linspire doesn't look like Windows. The distro I'm talking about had a proper Windows theme, and was configured in such a way that Wine ran almost completely transparently i.e. Out of the box, there was no configuring Wine, and all the usual Linux stuff was hidden away.

That's Lindows. I've even seen it with themes that look identical to Windows xp.

From Wikipedia:
Based in San Diego, California, Lindows, Inc. was founded in August 2001 by Michael Robertson with the goal of developing a Linux-based operating system capable of running major Microsoft Windows applications. It based its Windows compatibility on the Wine API emulation layer. The company later abandoned this approach in favor of attempting to make Linux applications easy to download, install and use.

[chedabob]

Originally Posted by E6600

That's Lindows. I've even seen it with themes that look identical to Windows xp.

It's not Lindows that I'm thinking of though

Actually, come to think of it, it might be

[E6600]

Update:
I've installed ReactOS on a very old laptop we had at home. This laptop originally came with Windows xp Home Edition, unfortuantely all the original driver CDs are missing. So ReactOS couldn't recognize the network, audio nor display drivers.
The installation process took less than 10 minutes, ReactOS all and all is 27 MB, needs very minimum requirements so actually it runs faster than Windows xp on the same machine.
I'm surprised to report that when I actually click a button or open a menu it doesn't crash.
So basically it is fast and stable (no programs were running), but couldn't connect to the Internet, and it couldn't recognize the display well, so the OS appears 800x600 on 1024x768 (kind of zoomed out). Oh and it comes with two games Solitaire and Minesweeper
I couldn't take a snapshot because the print screen utility doesn't work for some reason