Freedows OS

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Freedows OS was an open source attempt at creating a MS-Windows clone for x86 platforms, intended to be released under the GNU General Public License, started in 1996 by Reece K. Sellin, an undergraduate Computing Science Major at the University College of the Cariboo in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. The name is a portmanteau of "free" and "Windows".

The project never really saw the light, there were only intensive proposed design discussions featuring a number of novel concepts, including a modular architecture, derived from Stanford University's Cache Kernel, that used plug-in components to allow running software from different operating systems, including software from other hardware platforms.

The project seems to have been over-ambitious: the projected features, combined with sizable worldwide developer and alpha/beta-testing interest, resulted in difficulties in project organization and coordination. The project made little progress towards producing running code, and faced nearly constant redesign until a personal conflict split the project into two factions: Freedows (still controlled by Sellin) and Alliance OS (where some of the other developers had gone)—with both withering into relative obscurity.

Development of Freedows was indefinitely suspended in 2002, but the development of ReactOS, an independent project with similar goals, has reached a greater success.