Windows XP in a Browser

Ever want to run an OS in a browser? Well, now you can. Thanks to Java and some cool people, a website lets you run Windows XP inside of a Java emulation. As well, you can also run Ubuntu Linux. You might ask, “How slow is it?” It’s not 100% speed, but thanks to special coding the writers have gotten it to an estimated 85% native speed. From the FAQ:

This is cool, but what’s the point? We also think this is cool - the team has been working on this for over 5 years now and we’re really pleased to have finally got the WindowsXP/Ubuntu systems working. The need for full system emulation we think is a powerful tool for legacy business software as the JVM is probably one of the most future-proof platforms in the IT landscape. For cross-compiled source code to Java bytecode we imagine using idle time made available on public resources where owners are prepared to accept only secured Java code (not native code). See the companion project to see how Java-only donation can be achieved.

Read the whole FAQ/about page here and try it out for yourself here.