It might look and feel like Windows XP, it might sport a similar graphical user interface and even be able to run XP software, but fact is that an operating system developed by Rain Forest Wind Guangdong Computer Technology Co., Ltd. is anything else but Windows Vista’s predecessor. Ylmf OS is designed as a Windows XP clone based on version 9.10 of the Ubuntu distribution of the Linux open source operating system. The makers of Ylmf OS revealed that the Windows XP’s GUI was adopted in an effort to allow users of Microsoft’s proprietary platform to immediately start running Ubuntu Linux without needing to adapt to a new operating system.

An obvious downside to Ylmf OS is the fact that the release is Chinese only, at least at this point in time. Available for download localized exclusively in Chinese, Ylmf OS is bound to serve only users living in China and speaking the local language. No indications were offered by the team behind the project of future releases or support for additional languages. According to third-party reports, the people building Ylmf OS are in fact a group of Chinese pirates that were previously distributing a pirated copy of Windows XP, and which were tackled by the local authorities and Microsoft.

It is clear that by mimicking Windows XP’s GUI as much as possible, Ylmf OS is the product of copyright and intellectual property infringement. Ylmf OS even uses the default XP wallpaper, but despite the first impression it doesn’t offer XP, but Ubuntu 9.10 instead.

In this regard, Ylmf OS was customized in a manner specific of Linux distributions, including a variety of open source components. Undoubtedly, users will find most useful additions such as the Wine emulator, which allows users to install and run Windows XP programs. On top of this, the operating system comes to the table with Firefox as the default browser, eMule, FileZilla FTP Client and OpenOffice. Microsoft has yet to comment in any manner or deliver an official reaction to the Ubuntu-based XP clone.