Windows Ce?

[xFOADx]

Noob question:
Is Windows CE possible on Pandora?
I know there are ARM versions available.

especially for running GPS programs via bluetooth

 

[zhasha]

You can in all likelihood run GPS programs via Bluetooth under the provided linux installation. You might be able to run WinCE on it, but you'll be missing drivers for everything.

 

[hobbyman II]

you do realise you mentioned WinCe on a forum replete with Linux enthusiasts, devoted to a device running Linux

that's rather like going round to your local chapter of Hells Angels and screaming "come on out you bunch of poofter ladyboys, I'll take you all on, you poncy weirdos, get a proper bike, sell those crappy heaps and buy a Suzuki Bergman, come on! outside! NOW!"


only....slightly worse :unsure: , you might want to don asbestos attire and a welding helmet...thermonuclear response in 5....4....3..................

 

[mali]

^ Actually we had someone on the boards who wanted to port WinCE, someone with access to the MSDN. I don't know if he's still here, though.

 

[lulzfish]

You could, in theory, but it would be absolutely useless.
Trust us. It would be.

 

[wermy]

that's rather like going round to your local chapter of Hells Angels and screaming "come on out you bunch of poofter ladyboys, I'll take you all on, you poncy weirdos, get a proper bike, sell those crappy heaps and buy a Suzuki Bergman, come on! outside! NOW!"

I'd say it's more like saying "Hey guys, mind if I ride my scooter with you?"

He didn't say anything bad about linux, just asked if another OS would be possible (which, in my opinion, is always a good thing with devices like this!).

If we DID get a port of WinCE, it would open a whole new software library for us. How could that be bad??

 

[zhasha]

You could, in theory, but it would be absolutely useless.
Trust us. It would be.

I think you're overestimating Windows CE

In any case, NMEA GPS devices should "just work", and there are plenty of linux-based GPS viewers with (free) access to maps from all over the world

EDIT:

If we DID get a port of WinCE, it would open a whole new software library for us. How could that be bad??

Do you know what happens when botched/broken firmware gets uploaded to a chip? Ask the people who tried that one recent linux rc that included bad firmware for Intel e1000 cards

 

[XxionxX]

If we DID get a port of WinCE, it would open a whole new software library for us. How could that be bad??

Do you know what happens when botched/broken firmware gets uploaded to a chip? Ask the people who tried that one recent linux rc that included bad firmware for Intel e1000 cards

Hrm... Mabye we can try it on your extra Pandora to see what happens.</sarcasm>

 

[wermy]

Do you know what happens when botched/broken firmware gets uploaded to a chip? Ask the people who tried that one recent linux rc that included bad firmware for Intel e1000 cards

Who says it has to be installed on the internal NAND? I run it on my SmartQ off an SD card.

 

[WizardStan]

If we DID get a port of WinCE, it would open a whole new software library for us. How could that be bad??

Do you know what happens when botched/broken firmware gets uploaded to a chip? Ask the people who tried that one recent linux rc that included bad firmware for Intel e1000 cards

Pandora is unbrickable. Even if the firmware is a completely random string of meaningless characters, you can always boot off the SD card to reflash it with the default OS.
Also, you don't have to install a new operating system on the internal flash. As said, you can install an OS on the SD card and boot off of that.

edit: h34r:

 

[atomicthumbs]

Pandora is unbrickable.

It's actually rather easy to brick it, but you need an awl or chisel

 

[JayFoxRox]

You have to pay MS to give you a device specific Win CE build IIRC - its not affordable for anyone (unless you are very rich.. and too stupid to even consider Win CE) from what I remember.
Just look around using the search. I'm sure you will find lots of topics on this subject

 

[zhasha]

I never said anything about flashing the internal NAND, I was envisioning a scenario where some genius finds a driver for a similar model of some random chip in the pandora that works with Windows CE version [whatever], tries it and now the WiFi is dead across every single OS (like what happened when some genius released a botched firmware for the Intel Gigabit Ethernet series in a recent linux rc). Yes it can be fixed, and yes it's completely unlikely to happen, but that doesn't mean that it won't.
And trust me, stay as far away from WinCE as you possibly can. I have it on my smartphone and I have about 8 applications running to make it bearable to use.

 

[laurencevde]

Eeehm, what I understood happened to the e1000 was far more stupid:
That linux-kernel introduced function-tracing that could be turned on and off online.
This worked by compiling a no-op placeholder into every function. This would then be overwritten in memory by the tracing-code.
Something stupid happened that caused the tracing-code to think that some memory-mapped register/part of the firmware of the e1000 was such a placeholder.
So it wrote the tracing-code to that memory-location. (don't know exactly about this part, I also remember reading something about a read-function to find the placeholders that caused a write. Even worse...)
This location was supposed to be read-only, but a bug in the e1000 caused it to be writable.
Result: corrupt firmware in the e1000...

So, it wasn't some botched firmware, but an weird edge-case in new debugging-code that corrupted the firmware...
But yeah, unbrickable is pretty difficult. A bit of writable firmware that can't be reset afterwards, or a register that causes things to blow up if you put in the wrong value(voltage-registers for instance), or shorting some unprotected wires would be enough to at least cause a partial brick...

 

[conso]

Even if the firmware is a completely random string of meaningless characters

Hell, that would still be better then WinCE ^^

 

[sabrecheeky]

I'd much prefer a Palm OS emulator. Have loads of Palm stuff that I can't use properly because of EVIL Vista. I'm certain Microsoft deliberately made sure hotsync screwed up under vista to bugger palm users. But then I (a) am paranoid, and (B) hate Microsoft.

Edit... That is supposed to be a 'b' in brackets. It is too late now. I am going to bed.

 

[willrandship]

Why does anyone even need winCE? what possible thing can it do that angstrom can't? I can't think of anything. If there are a few applications, it has been mentioned that a WineCE style of project could be possible. Still, though, why?

 

[fischju2000]

There are a fair number of WinCE/WinMo/PocketPC games for the Dell Axim, Palm Treo, ect. like a licensed Call of Duty 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pocket_PC_games
Perhaps a compatibility layer like WINE though?

 

[fearofshorts]

I think a WINE for wince (I just love not capitalizing that correctly) would be a bit out of our scope. WINE is a very massive project with an appeal that stretches across an entire OS userbase.
To create a new program like that just for wince seems kind of ridiculous to me.

 

[spaceballs3000]

Yes
http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/dvsdk-winceomap.html

http://www.bsquare.com/Data/Sites/1/marketing_documents/TI_OMAP/Why_BsquareWinCEBSP_for_TIOMAP3.pdf