Midori: The project which inspired the Metro interface

Microsoft's labs for a while worked on a new operating system whose some features are now integrated into Windows 8.

The computer environment has changed since the epoch of the design of Windows. Internet was not existing and the Redmond firm finally discovered that the system must be redesigned according to technologies of today.
It is expected that Midori applications  would not work under Windows, but the reverse is true through a migration, and Midori applications could interact with Windows applications.
The project is still active in 2012 although some of the ideas of the interface have been incorporated into Windows 8.

Take note Midori is also the name of a browser, based on Webkit.

New concepts for a new operating system

It is known as Microsoft develops for a while Singularity, an operating system based on concepts different from those of Windows.  Midori is the commercial application of this "concept car" of the OS.

1) Variable system implementation

Mindori runs natively on hardware, 32 or 64-bit as Windows, but also on a virtualization system or even as a process of Windows.

2) Components

The system would be designed on the basis of components, unlike Windows, with sufficient independence and security for a problem with a component does not affect any other when they communicate each with other.

3) Asynchronous

The notion of competition would be magnified to reflect the current workstation:  local and remote programs and services, multiple devices operating at the same time.  Any work  asynchronously, that means that a process does not wait another is finished to start but they all run at the same time and provide results when they are ready ... it is the principle of Architecture is the name of a new model very comprehensive application which is independent of the machine and processor, to operate locally and remote is the name of a new application  model very comprehensive which is independent of the machine and processor, to operate locally and remotely.
This is where the difference has emerged over the OS that we know: data storage is through this general pattern, there is no longer file, disk, unity, etc..

Software development tools will be designed to hide to the programmer the complexity of the processes taking place under the commands.

4) Tiles

A processing and one at a time, The graphical interface will change in the sense that rather than the display is refreshed on the base of a process and one at a time, it will evolve according to all processes underway.

Some examples of such changes are already established in platforms like HTML 5 or Android. Android, which manages a laptop must respond to multiple messages that may arrive at the same time ...

5) Collaborative Applications

As there are collaborative Web sites (forums, digg-like, etc.), there would be collaborative applications.
Note that already exists plug-ins for Firefox, for example, but it will be widespread and simplified by the design of the OS, which would provide quotas of resources to components.

From Midori to Metro

The Singularity project, Midori precursor, was launched by Microsoft in 2003. Windows Vista should have made significant innovations but has not kept its promises, it is a version of XP that has gained weight and became slower, to give a little more security, but major innovations as the system file search by queries is not implemented. Windows 7 is not revolutionary either, but Midori inspired the Metro interface in Windows 8 with for examples the asynchronous mode, tiles.