Of course, Windows Lite is also very likely going to be a massive player in Microsoft's education strategy, which has also seen Chrome OS thunder-in at full power. iPad has been doing this from the beginning. Chrome OS is slowly gaining market share, as audiences come to realize that a lightweight platform is all they need. This is the use case for a large percentage of PC users. They need to write an essay in a word processing app, listen to music through their favorite music-streaming service, and chat with friends on any number of social networks. Not everyone needs a platform with decades of legacy support. Light computing is a device and OS experience that's designed to get out the way and cater to the very basic needs of most people using a laptop or tablet.

Microsoft is going straight for that market, which I like to call the 'light computing' market. Same for the people buying Chrome OS devices. It's for the same people who are looking at the iPad with iOS and thinking Yeah, I can do what I need to do with something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Microsoft push things like Windows Sets first on Windows Lite, for example.įorget Windows 10 S, Microsoft needs a true 'lite' version of Windowsīack to our initial question, who is Windows Lite for? Simply put, it's for people who don't need full Windows devices. Not calling the new version Windows should help Microsoft break away from this. Windows users come to expect a familiar taskbar and start button combo, and straying too far from that experience causes problems for users. For Microsoft to have even the slimmest chance of making an OS that is locked down like Chrome OS or iOS, it needs to sever ties with the Windows brand.ĭoing this opens the door to much more than averting app availability expectations, it also lets Microsoft experiment and venture into new territory when it comes to user experience. A customer looking to buy a Windows device is likely expecting to be able to run programs like Google Chrome and lots of other Win32 applications that aren't in the Microsoft Store.

One of Microsoft's most significant problems with trying to branch out with Windows is that the 'Windows' brand comes with so much baggage and expectations from customers.

What is windows 7 lite