Free alternative to XP

Ivan Sergio Borgonovo <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.org.user-groups.linux.svlug
Organization http://www.WebThatWorks.it
Message-ID <[email protected]>
I'm having more frequent problems with XP under virtualbox for the few 
things I still need Windows.

Namely:
- a compiler and programmer of an embedded display
- TomTom updater program

Both software use USB. None is resource intensive.

The compiler/programmer software is pretty old, it has even a 
CLI/DOS(??) interface and probably is using the USB as a glorified RS232.

TomTom may use it in a way that may be far lower level than I would like 
to be, but maybe not and I never have been able to make TomTom work at a 
higher standard than USB 1 under virtualbox/Linux/XP.

I don't know if it is due to XP being too old and causing problems with 
USB or the TomTom software or if it's just a problem with new kernels 
and virtualbox, anyway it could be a good opportunity to take out XP 
from the equation and get rid of one more piece of non Open software.

The few alternatives that comes to mind are ReactOS and Wine but I know 
so few about them that I don't even know if it is worth to try.

-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it http://www.borgonovo.net
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