Sunday, January 27th 2019
ChromeOS-competitor Windows Lite to Feature a Reimagined UI, Chucks "Metro" Live Tiles
Windows Lite is a new upcoming PC operating system by Microsoft designed as a competitor to Google's ChromeOS, and being designed for machines with extremely slim hardware specifications. The OS could also target devices that work as "edge computers," with much of their processing being performed over the cloud. ChromeOS beats the bloated Windows 10 in one key department - a lightweight and uncluttered user-interface. This is the area where much of Microsoft's design efforts lie - UI elements and graphics that are lightweight not just on memory, but also Internet bandwidth, if the device is streaming a remote session (a la Citrix). Below is a concept by UX designer Jay Machalani.
The Windows Lite desktop looks familiar, with a taskbar and app buttons, and a Start menu, but one that's been redesigned without live tiles, but a simple list of icons. At this point it's unclear just how far Microsoft intends to go with the lightweight OS concept without cannibalizing sales of Windows 10 Home. The OS definitely features UWP, and from the looks of the screenshot doing rounds, also appears to support legacy Win32 apps, however, Microsoft has in the past restricted functionality of its cheapest OS products so as to not kill pricier Windows versions. Microsoft is innovating two brand new Windows user-interfaces for launches through 2019-2020, codenamed "Polaris" and "Andromeda."
Sources:
MSPowerUser, Jay Machalani
The Windows Lite desktop looks familiar, with a taskbar and app buttons, and a Start menu, but one that's been redesigned without live tiles, but a simple list of icons. At this point it's unclear just how far Microsoft intends to go with the lightweight OS concept without cannibalizing sales of Windows 10 Home. The OS definitely features UWP, and from the looks of the screenshot doing rounds, also appears to support legacy Win32 apps, however, Microsoft has in the past restricted functionality of its cheapest OS products so as to not kill pricier Windows versions. Microsoft is innovating two brand new Windows user-interfaces for launches through 2019-2020, codenamed "Polaris" and "Andromeda."
30 Comments on ChromeOS-competitor Windows Lite to Feature a Reimagined UI, Chucks "Metro" Live Tiles
Ah yes:
Nothing is optimized for my pc.
The only things I do on it is watch movies and browse the web anyway. And 2GB of ram is a drag in certain occasions, so getting rid of all the unnecessary background stuff is welcomed.
But their determination to sell a crippled version of Windows is quite respectable.
It really should not have been so hard for MS to let go of Metro UI and let users customize or revert the start menu.
I only use the start menu for searching, and it's been my habit since Windows 7, you know, when MS got their shit together and realized that you could use the same button in the taskbar for both starting and switching to a program.
Quick launch was a silly idea.
Windows 10, without the telemetry and bloat, and a nice UI which isn't a hodgepodge of Vista and broken, boring flat Metro UI would be a good start.
And for Windows 11, take Windows 10, strip it to the core and heavily optimize it, and by optimized, I mean to the hardware. Optimize for Ryzen, and whatever the last couple of "lake" CPUs Intel is peddling, also optimize for the last couple of GPU generations from AMD and nVidia, throw in a modern, hardware rendered refresh of the Windows 7 UI, and we could be looking at something quite cool... Yeah, you would piss off a few million users of antique hardware, but you have to cut out support for that old crap to be able to truly move forward with Windows.