As promised in the previous post, I'd like to start putting some effort into selecting noteworthy submissions to feature on the Journal. Originally, I opted do a "Concept of the week/month" - however, I don't always have the time, and so cannot commit to doing this on a regular basis. That said, I'm starting out with a "Concept Spotlight", which will be a series that covers great concepts submitted to the gallery, on an irregular basis. Sometimes there may be two posts a week and at other times, once a month.
Without further ado, the first Spotlight is on:

This concept is inspired by a few things, including Windows 10, which has been the craze since the launch of preview builds some months ago. Many designers submitted their concepts and ideas to Microsoft, and sites all over the web, including our humble little group.
Origami OS takes a clean, minimal approach to its layout, and presents everything precisely. Whilst being somewhat different in comparison to Windows 10 (regarding the File Explorer, for example), everything is where you would expect it to be. It features everything you would expect from a Windows installation (seemingly; this is, of course, only a concept), such as the task bar and start menu.
Of particular interest to me is the start menu, which seems to be an interactive panel that handles quite a few tasks. From what can be seen, it features the normal app list, which allows you to easily get to your apps, but also displays notifications, plays music, views Instagrams (I guess a normal photo viewer could be thrown in there, too), and more. What's even more interesting is the contextual area that appears in the task bar when a particular app panel is being used. So if I open up Spotify and play something, I can easily open up Word, for example, in full screen, and be able to switch between songs on the fly, without having to lose my focus on the document I'm working on. My only concern with this is that the start button/arrow is no longer available... Then again, the author did not specify exactly how this feature works. That aside, it does really look very useful.
As a designer, I fell in love with the transparent windows with blurred backgrounds. It really gives the OS a great feel, making it 'blend into its surroundings'. This cue was obviously taken from OS X, but this does a better job, in my opinion.
Multitasking seems nice, and the multiple desktop functionality gets out of your way - that is, when you're only using one desktop, there's no need to show a thumb for it at the bottom. (I'm guessing that's the intention here.)
Login screen is simple, and looks very elegant - once again, everything is where you would expect it to be.
Naturally, the
2.4.2 update is much better than
2.4.1, being much more refined in comparison.
ConclusionAll-in-all, Origami OS looks and feels really nice, and has been very well-designed. Kudos to
mrtomone on this excellent concept!