Windows Ce Becomes More Plausible?

[fischju2000]

I wanted to put this out there, it seems MS is giving out subscriptions to TechNet

USA https://om2.one.microsoft.com/offer/technet_na.aspx

UK https://om2.one.microsoft.com/offer/technet_emea.aspx

You can download just about anything they make, SDKs, full retail operating systems, generate keys....it's been up for a couple of days like this. Any person could grab the Windows CE 6.0 Embedded and all the related software needed to create a version that works on a new device.

Edit: While Windows CE may or may not work well, I wanted to post it for you guys because it's nice and wanted to make it seem related to the Pandora.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I'm gonna download everything while the gettin's good

 

[gruso]

UK/USA only. Strewth!

 

[elwing]

of course it is plausible, but I am sure it does not worth it... linux is much more alike windows XP than CE, and CE offer nothing new in my opinion... it look more like a waste of developpment time and a "will i be able to run counterstrike" thread generating subject...

 

[fischju2000]

There are a lot of franchised and otherwise very good games for the PocketPC platform, some of which could potentially run on Windows CE for the Pandora. There is also a lot of GPS software. Nvidia has recently been showing a nice looking Windows CE running on Tegra netbooks.

 

[Poem58]

I have to say, I still use my pocket PC to this day. Mainly for the games I have for it. I would welcome some sort of port if it became available just so I could play my games as well as a couple of really cool apps I had as well that would actually perform really good on the Pandora. Seems funny that people would tout the capabilities of Arm yet always seem to think it's ridiculous or unnecessary that someone might want to play their existing Arm games on their new Arm device...lol

Let's get real, CE sucks. It's one of the most feature crippled OS's I have ever seen. I have to think my 400Mhz Xscale Arm is capable of more than Pocket PC 2002 let it, especially seeing third party apps made SO much more happen even OS-wise.
Still I would enjoy having my old software be able to run for the next how many odd years on my new, and better device.

I had made a post in a thread about Win7 Arm on the other board where I suggested that maybe if they were to port Win 7 to Arm it might be or at least make a nice replacement OS for CE. Finally they could make it useful if not still rather crippled and require specially written software. I was shot down for being ridiculous I guess, but if they are giving away previous versions of the OS, maybe this will be the case. While I have never used a CE past PPC 2002, I still get the impression that it isn't really that much different just a few extra bells and whistles. There is no real desktop (at least by PPC2002) no real windows, you even have to instal 3rd party software to get the X button to actually close a program. It's a bad OS but there were some decent uses for it and some games really were creative and fun and were really the first I can think of designed for a touchscreen making board and card games really fun.

I know it's not likely, i hope it becomes possible. Anyhting that allows more games on my Pandora is good in my book!

 

[hedwards]

of course it is plausible, but I am sure it does not worth it... linux is much more alike windows XP than CE, and CE offer nothing new in my opinion... it look more like a waste of developpment time and a "will i be able to run counterstrike" thread generating subject...

I have to agree with that, admittedly the last version I used was from 2003, but still, it didn't really offer a whole lot, and what it did offer could definitely be done by Linux. And probably not take too much work to accomplish. It never really fit in with MS' other OSes.

 

[Pleng]

I have to agree with that, admittedly the last version I used was from 2003, but still, it didn't really offer a whole lot, and what it did offer could definitely be done by Linux

Handwriting recognition?

 

[marshal]

I don't like windows mobile / ce much. It just isn't a good platform in my opinion.
I have to say however that there are enough interesting proprietary software to make it somewhat interesting as a secondary os for the Pandora.

Handwriting recognition is a interesting point. For western language I don't see much point on the Pandora (it has a keyboard !) but for JCK language the handwriting recognition is great.

I can only speak for the Japanese part and as a tool to look up character you don't know it's great... Or even witting (although the keyboard can also be efficiently used for this)

As far as I know there is no software on linux that can provides a good japanese character recognition. (Kankipad just doesn't cut it for me and I am not sure about the status of tomoe)

In the long run I see running android apps has something more interesting (either by running the android apps though some kind of compatibility layer, a VM or maybe even directly on the hardware)

 

[dingens]

There are a lot of franchised and otherwise very good games for the PocketPC platform, some of which could potentially run on Windows CE for the Pandora.

Legacy
The Quest
and this: http://www.jamesbeckingham.com.au/Diablo.aspx
for example

 

[gilesjuk]

I think Palm OS would be pretty useful, firstly it's very simple and it does have some GPS software.

 

[MarkoeZ]

Well since CE allready runs on the beagleboard, it will be short while after release when someone posts it working probably. dunno if you want it legitimately, but it's certainly possible. I'm not going to mess with it though, most programs/games for CE are available in some form on linux or emulators anyway. Anyway, going to smoke a moron now : P




Off topic: Well, i had to test it, it's not my brand

 

[Megatog615]

Why do people need Windows on ARM when nothing written for Windows would run on it anyway?

 

[fischju2000]

MS has wised up to the 'free' TechNet subscriptions, it seems they have frozen download for the entire system while they sort it out.

 

[pelrun]

Why do people need Windows on ARM when nothing written for Windows would run on it anyway?

This has nothing to do with the copious Windows-on-ARM threads. Windows CE runs on multiple platforms (ARM, MIPS, SuperH, X86) and there is a substantial library of ARM-compiled apps for it.

 

[cbox]

Why do people need Windows on ARM when nothing written for Windows would run on it anyway?

This has nothing to do with the copious Windows-on-ARM threads. Windows CE runs on multiple platforms (ARM, MIPS, SuperH, X86"] and there is a substantial library of ARM-compiled apps for it.[/quote]Considering probably a majority of Windows CE devices are ARM based, yeah there's a lot of Windows CE programs that would probably run on a WinCE Pandora.

 

[hobbyman II]

you mean that for CE there are several commercial offerings that are pretty lack-luster, CE is inevitably pretty dire (look who wrote it), installing Linux on your pocket PC makes for a much better device, faster and more memory efficient, I always prefered Palm OS anyway, I had 2 M105`s , a Zire (still in use) and a Tungsten e, at least Palm handhelds had a decent free software base, for some reason Windows developers think you should pay $10 for a decimal to binary converter or a copy of Space Invaders, whats with those guys?

anyway, why would you want to cripple Pandora with an obsolete, badly written OS with no drivers?, or does CE come with a OpenGL driver for the Pandoras graphics chipset?

ummm, thought not.

 

[dingens]

and a Tungsten e, at least Palm handhelds had a decent free software base, for some reason Windows developers think you should pay $10 for a decimal to binary converter or a copy of Space Invaders, whats with those guys?

anyway, why would you want to cripple Pandora with an obsolete, badly written OS with no drivers?, or does CE come with a OpenGL driver for the Pandoras graphics chipset?

ummm, thought not.

Calm down.

I'm pretty sure that ImgTec has got an SGX driver for CE. It also had a decent one for the MBX. The Linux driver for the MBX was unusably crappy, btw.

This is no Linux vs. CE battle.

 

[WoD]

There's a reason why it's abbreviated to WinCE.

Although I still wish Pocket PCs were a viable and popular product. Those old NEC MobilePros, HP Jornanda and whatnots were actually quite a cool form factor that the Pandora doesn't quite re-create but gets close.

 

[christo930]

I don't like windows mobile / ce much. It just isn't a good platform in my opinion.
I have to say however that there are enough interesting proprietary software to make it somewhat interesting as a secondary os for the Pandora.

Handwriting recognition is a interesting point. For western language I don't see much point on the Pandora (it has a keyboard !) but for JCK language the handwriting recognition is great.

I can only speak for the Japanese part and as a tool to look up character you don't know it's great... Or even witting (although the keyboard can also be efficiently used for this)

As far as I know there is no software on linux that can provides a good japanese character recognition. (Kankipad just doesn't cut it for me and I am not sure about the status of tomoe)

In the long run I see running android apps has something more interesting (either by running the android apps though some kind of compatibility layer, a VM or maybe even directly on the hardware)

How does a Chinese KB work? Isn't Chinese made up of picture words? I always wondered about that.

I really like the Pocket-pc platform and was really sorry to see it killed by phones. There are great games for it and they make great readers... My doctor uses one and he just types in my name and he has all my medical information right there while he is seeing me. He can do prescriptions with it and it even looks for D-D interactions when writing scripts. I've supported them in a warehouse where a built in reader kept track of inventory. They are really great for certain things.

Chris