Mercury OS

"Focused. The clutter we take for granted in today’s operating systems can be overwhelming, especially for folks sensitive to stimulation. Mercury is respectful of limited bandwidths and attention spans."

Here's the thing: You are not the target audience of this OS and you are by no means required to use it.

In my opinion, this is a solid attempt at creating an operating system for non-techies. Way fewer concepts to learn, way easier interaction.

I feel like it's impossible to have a device experience that caters to everyone.

The vast majority of users don't consciously register that they are using a computer with an operating system. Most don't know there are differences between tablets, laptops and phones. Most don't understand the concept of a file or a folder - "photos" are in "iCloud" and "documents" in "google docs", etc.

An OS for them, laptop or mobile, is something like iOS or Android (or the demo in this post). The spanner here is compatibility. I'd wager if Android or iOS could run Windows games/apps and fit on a desktop/laptop form factor, this would suffice for almost everyone. The iPad "Pro" is an example demonstrating the potential of this concept.

The non power-user professionals who use their devices for productivity purposes like spreadsheets, document writing, etc would need something that lets them multi task, wiz around and organise/optimise their workflow. Something like Windows 7 or MacOS. Something that doesn't get in their way, maximises the use of their hardware, is reliable and predictable.

The power user, administrator and developer are either agnostic or never happy (I fall into the latter category).

I want the Windows 7 with the classic theme experience on top of a Linux OS that features MacOS workspaces-per-monitor, with iTerm2 and where the start menu search is as good as Spotlight - but with extensions. It needs to be compatible with Windows games and where applications behave reliably, without jank.

My dream operating system is a spartan productivity workhorse born out of a vaporwave fever dream - and no designer in their right mind would ever sign off on it (I'd be willing to forgo the classic theme).

At the end of the day, I feel like we can't cater to everyone with one UI and the OS vendors are trying (and failing) to do just that.

Windows 11 is a dumpster fire and MacOS is increasingly hostile to the experience of power users. They gotta stop fooling around with "one OS for everyone"

What we need are real differences between "Windows 11", "Windows 11 Pro", "Windows 11 Linux Spartan Edition"

But I hate everything this stands for. I want tools! This whole idea feels insulting to its own users, seen by the authors as an infinitely confused people incapable of understanding any complexity at all. They can’t see every option and action for an application! They will get confused! Instead we will build them half-assed applications on-the-fly based on their ill-imagined idea of what their goal is, explained in prose. Plain prose of course being the most accurate way to describe a problem space.

I’m glad this is just a concept and not a product pitch.