it would be nice to have a bloat-free, spyware-free XP application and driver compatible O/S on the scene
there is one and it's called XP ;) I did an nlite install (used to get rid of unwanted features) of xp recently on my eeepc an it's fantastic, it boots up in about 10 seconds too.
As for spyware etc, I think the user has to take some responsibility for this. It's never been a problem for me