tiny11 Initial Screen

It is well known that Windows 11 operating system is resource-intensive, thus there are non Microsoft enthusiasts (known as NTDEV) who modified it to create a lightweight version (also referred to as Pocket Edition, indicating it is compact enough to fit in a pocket), called tiny11.

The lightweight tiny11 installation image file is less than 3GB, and it only requires 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage to run, allowing some older computers the opportunity to install and use a “similar” Windows 11 operating system.

Installation Method

tiny11 was originally designed to run on x86-64 computers, but recently NTDEV also released a version for Arm64 computers (the image file size increased to 4GB), so it can also run on 64-bit Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi, RPi). However, since it requires 2GB of RAM to run, it must use the fourth generation Raspberry Pi (RPi 4), as the previous three generations only have 256MB to 1GB of RAM.

After obtaining the image file, it needs to be transferred to a microSD card or USB flash drive with the help of the WoR (Windows on Raspberry) tool, although using a microSD card is less efficient; it is generally recommended to connect a USB 3.0 port on the Raspberry Pi to a USB flash drive or a solid-state drive connected via USB, and set it to boot from the USB port.

The installation process of tiny11 is generally similar to that of a regular Windows 11, but it does not require signing in with a Microsoft account; instead, it directs to create a local user account to log in, and there are no common software authorization prompts found in the official Windows operating system, after all, this is not an official version of Windows.

Although the Raspberry Pi can successfully install and run tiny11, according to user experiences online, using the Edge browser for web browsing is very slow. Additionally, tiny11 only detects the wired Ethernet network of the Raspberry Pi and operates normally, but does not detect wireless Wi-Fi, and the wireless Bluetooth function is also not very effective.

Furthermore, trying to run regular Win32 applications from an x86 computer on the Raspberry Pi’s tiny11 will not work, resulting in error messages. If you want to install applications, downloading and installing from the Microsoft Store online store is more feasible, but it cannot guarantee success.

Continuing, since the Raspberry Pi is widely loved by makers, there will definitely be an interest in using the GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi board, usually controlled in the Raspberry Pi’s Linux operating system environment using Python programming language. Similarly, some have tried to install the Python programming language suite on tiny11 to control the pins.

Raspberry Pi Model B type single-board computer’s GPIO pin position

Regarding this, first download and install the latest version of Python from the Microsoft Store, and then use pip, Python’s package management program, to install the related libraries for GPIO, including the RPi.GPIO library and the GPIOZero library. The former clearly does not execute, while the latter seems to work, but it does not have actual pin control effects. The conclusion is that controlling the GPIO pins of the Raspberry Pi using tiny11 is currently not feasible, so it is better to revert to using Raspberry Pi OS.

In summary, tiny11 has more novelty than practicality, and other users also report instability issues, whether it be the x86 version or the Arm version, as many modifications have been made to Windows 11, including checking for a TPM chip during installation, which the Raspberry Pi does not have; thus, this verification code must be skipped. All these modifications may contribute to instability.

Some users online have installed tiny11 using RPi 400

Conclusion

Finally, the emergence and discussion of tiny11 (which had previously had tiny10, a lightweight version of Windows 10 also created by NTDEV) show that users are increasingly dissatisfied with the ever-bloating operating systems.

In the past, Windows 95 sparked a wave of hardware upgrades among users, as the new operating system indeed had many obvious conveniences, such as long file names and plug-and-play, leading users to upgrade hardware and purchase new computers to run the new operating system.

However, in recent years, the upgrades of operating systems have not felt like they offer significant benefits, yet still require hardware upgrades and new computers to run smoothly, which can lead to dissatisfaction and reluctance to upgrade. This is also a reason for the slowing penetration rate of new versions of the Windows operating system.

In the past, Windows Vista attempted to replicate the success of Windows 95 and drive users to upgrade their hardware and software, but the response was not as expected.

Not only Windows, but also macOS, Linux have also shown a trend of becoming bloated, including the official Raspberry Pi operating system Raspberry Pi OS which also has a Lite version to reduce hardware load. Not only the official Lite version has been released, but others have also developed lightweight Linux distributions suitable for Raspberry Pi based on Debian Linux (the foundation of Raspberry Pi OS), called DietPi, which is a lightweight operating system for RPi, with connotations of being an alternative to the authentic Raspberry Pi OS Lite, but DietPi can also be used on other single-board computers, not just limited to Raspberry Pi. The slogan of DietPi is: the lightweight justice for single-board computers!

In conclusion, it is estimated that the trend of lightweight operating systems will continue for some time, providing users with another option and prompting the official manufacturers of operating systems to reflect more on their development!

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