I have an older, kind of broken-down laptop that I wanted to do some research and testing on, so I installed a fresh install of a new operating system on it. Having a slow processor, I chose an operating system with relatively low system requirements, but it still managed to include an advanced XML aggregator integrated right into the operating system.

The aggregator includes configurable settings for retrieving feeds, support for rich content right in the feeds themselves, an attractive branded UI for each feed, and strong tools for managing subscription lists. Best of all, the aggregator works flawlessly with the integrated web browser, which also supports a new XML format that’s similar to the now-defunct DeepLeap’s site metadata files, allowing for the display of standardized navigational elements across many different types of websites.

There’s also support built right in for the seamless display of video content regardless of source, with first-class television tuner support and video overlay. and keyword-searchable television listings. Best of all, this operating system runs almost every common application that I want to use, from instant messaging clients to games to Microsoft Office, except for some very unusual or brand-new programs.

Setup took about half an hour, and my wifi network’s already running on the machine, streaming MP3s from my server. The first time I started up, all my devices were recognized and the list of default subscriptions were displayed right on my desktop. It doesn’t even have any DRM features or required activation built into the OS, though it does seem to be slightly prone to instability if you’re not careful about which applications and devices you use.

The operating system I installed on my computer is Windows 98.