Hey all. Thanks to Joe Smith, a user on another astro forum, I've come across "ReactOS" - an open source offering that is built from new code from the ground up to run applications written for XP. This is fabbo, as you get an XP clone that is only a 30Mb download - and you don't have licensing and activation problems to think about.
It looks and smells like XP already - even in its alpha release phase.
I've fired up the installation within a Sun VirtualBox environment on my PC for a bit of a look-see. Runs pretty well for alpha release. I HAVE seen a BSOD, but given that it's alpha I'd expect this from time to time.
The last screenshot is of IIS running in FireFox2, running on ReactOS withing a Sun VirtualBox environment in turn running on my trusty Vista box. Whew!
I love the Linux-esque enhancements sich as multiple desktops too - very nice touches that should have been part of XP years ago. If Microsoft don't sue the pants off them for GUI copyright infringement, it'll stay familiar to current XP users. I guess that OpenOffice looks pretty similar to MSOffice, but this is even closer to XP.
Anyways - here's the website:
http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html
Have fun!