Microsoft almost ditched Windows' spaghetti architecture for a cloud-based OS but mysteriously sent it to an early grave

[Windows Central]

In 2008, Microsoft started developing a new operating system codenamed 'Midori' that could potentially replace Windows but abandoned it in 2015. The company promised to integrate elements of the project across its tech stack.

Microsoft almost ditched Windows' spaghetti architecture for a cloud-based OS but mysteriously sent it to an early grave : Read more

 

[ShinyProton]

AFAIK, Midori was never meant to be a cloud-based OS. It was sure to be almost exclusively managed and verifiable. At one point, they did have their cloud-based speech recognition engine running off it and SQL Server - as a proof of concept.
Considering the incredibly severe fracture this OS would have brought to the existing ecosystem (although the existing Windows could have been virtualized in it), I still believe management got cold feet and shelved it forever. Which is another terrible mistake IMHO.