Resources - Operating Systems - Windows and direct alternatives

Windows was introduced by Microsoft in late-1985, and gained internet support in the late 1990s.  Since then, it has become a very popular platform among computer users.

Microsoft Windows
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/

Windows is a commercial software operating system and graphical user interface produced by Microsoft.  Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs), and it gained wide-spread popularity throughout the world before the turn of the century.

ReactOS
http://www.reactos.org/

ReactOS is a free, modern operating system based on the design of MS-Windows® XP/2003.  Written completely from scratch, it aims to follow the Windowsr architecture designed by Microsoft from the hardware level right through to the application level.  This is not a Linux based system, and shares none of the unix architecture.

Wine
http://www.winehq.org/

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix.  Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs -- Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available.

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