Miss Windows XP or 7? Then I have a free, open-source alternative for you - ZDNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. Tech > Services & Software > Open Source If you're looking for a Windows alternative, but aren't ready for Linux, the open-source ReactOS is now as easy to install as Windows. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. I recently wrote about ReactOS in “My 5 favorite open-source operating systems that aren’t Linux.” One of those OSes is ReactOS, which aims to look and feel just like Windows, but has nothing to do with Microsoft. Although ReactOS is really easy to use, installing it has been, well, less so. When you go to download an ISO image for installation, you’ll notice there’s a live version and a boot version. The boot version is what you would use to install ReactOS, and when you go to do so, you’ll find that it’s an old-school, text-based installation. Well, there’s good news for those who are hoping to give ReactOS a try. The developers have merged the LiveCD and the text-based installer, so you get both on one ISO (which you can use to create a bootable USB drive). What this does is bring the ReactOS installation more in line with Linux insta