[tpoacher]

There is already a "Windows Lite", and it's called ReactOS [0].

Except, the last thing we need is for Microsoft to own / embrace-extend-exterminate this. It's best that it's kept as an independent project, enabling developers to target the Windows API if they feel like it, while ensuring that they only target the Wine-compatible parts of it, which then enables their software to also run seamlessly on other platforms at no extra effort, and without requiring either the users or the devs to have to lock themselves into this ungodly telemetry-spying-ads-AI-.NET mess that the article talks about.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has zero to gain from making a Windows Lite variant themselves given their lifeline is exactly this telemetry-spying-ads-AI-.NET ecosystem; and they have zero to gain from absorbing ReactOS or similar projects, other than in order to eliminate them.

[0] https://reactos.org/

[sph]

I think the author meant something that can be used in practice for real work, not a cyclopean effort of clean room reimplementation of Windows as a hobby for part-time volunteers.

The reality is as you said, only Microsoft can make Windows Lite, and they don’t care to.

[tpoacher]

Possibly, but that still doesn't mean there isn't a real benefit to developers developing for ReactOS as a proxy for developing for Windows in a manner that makes their products instantly compatible with Mac and Linux.

The "real work" part is mostly about the user. And that depends on available programs on the platform, not on the user's boundless love for telemetry.

OP seems to be mostly addressing developers here, so the point stands.