I just downloaded and installed in a virtualbox VM. It feels ridiculously snappy compared to windows. Runs Firefox with the odd crash. Impressive to see how far it has come but there is still some way to go.
I've followed all the newsletters and it feels like the development it's always a somewhat working rewrite on top of a somewhat working rewrite on top of a somewhat working rewrite.
The way to go, while it appears small, it's the last 10% which is a 200% in practice. It's pretty clear from the development that is's an excessively large project for a small, changing, group of hobby developers.
Obviously, I hope things will change. I'd really like a free Windows XP in virtual environments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Virtual_PC#Windows_XP_M...
"Windows XP Mode is available free of charge to users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate"
As somebody else pointed out, security is a primary concern.
Once Windows XP support is phased out, the product is gone.
Installing it is going to be a serious security risk, unless very specific cases, e.g. machines disconnected from internet.
Of course, that's not the only reason; Microsoft will stop selling licenses, then what about installing it in VMs on a Linux host?
An O/S is part of an ecosystem. Once it's phased out, if it's closed source, it's dead unless it's taken over by a third party (see O/S 2).
The browser is just another test case to see if Windows apps will/won't run. The killer feature is the ability to run legacy Windows apps that are not easily replaced on other platforms.