  We consider freely acting orbifold compactifications, which interpolate in
two possible decompactification limits between the supersymmetric type II
string and the non-supersymmetric type 0 string. In particular we discuss how
D-branes are incorporated into these orbifold models. Investigating the open
string spectrum on D3-branes, we will show that one can interpolate in this way
between N=4 supersymmetric U(N) respectively U(2N) Yang-Mills theories and
non-supersymmetric U(N)*U(N) gauge theories with adjoint massless scalar fields
plus bifundamental massless fermions in a smooth way. Finally, by lifting the
orbifold construction to M-theory, we conjecture some duality relations and
show that in particular a new supersymmetric branch of gauge like theories
emanate for the non-supersymmetric model.
