BMW uses Windows CE

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:MSFT&Feed=PR&Date=20020304&ID=1462271">http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Symbol=US:MSFT&Feed=PR&Date=20020304&ID=1462271</a><br /><br />This is another post slightly off topic dealing with Windows CE in general rather than the Pocket PC in particular and is a follow-up to Andy's post last week.<br /><br />"Microsoft Corp. MSFT today announced that the BMW 7 Series, the line of cars introduced last month in the United States, features Microsoft's robust, real-time embedded operating system, Windows(R) CE. This announcement comes shortly after Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit launched Windows CE for Automotive v3.5, the newest version of its telematics software platform based on Windows CE, and announced an end-to-end solution to enable the auto industry to cost-effectively implement and maintain advanced automotive telematics. "<br /><br />Now, this has some bearing on Pocket PC's, or at least it could. For each and every company out there using Windows CE, be it in a 4.4L, 325 hp, 6spd $84,845 car <i>(am I the only one that makes <a href="http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/slp29/insane.html">car noises</a> when reading that sort of thing?)</i> or a simple gas pump, what type of PDA do you think they will be buying for their sales force, plant foremen and executives to enable them to keep up with their schedule, to connect to data warehouses, listen to digital training material, etc? :-)

[JoeThielen]

(am I the only one that makes car noises (http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/slp29/insane.html) when reading that sort of thing?)


Yeah, I can see it now.... 'invalid or missing DLL in "Breaks.exe", unable to execute'...

AHHHHHHH.... *CRASH*.

:roll:

Hey, someone was going to say it... might as well be me! :oops:

[heliod]

(am I the only one that makes car noises (http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/slp29/insane.html) when reading that sort of thing?)


Yeah, I can see it now.... 'invalid or missing DLL in "Breaks.exe", unable to execute'...

AHHHHHHH.... *CRASH*.

:roll:

Hey, someone was going to say it... might as well be me! :oops:


This comment just reminds me of a picture someone sent to my site when there was the gossip about Microsoft and Ericsson joining forces for a SmartPhone:

http://pocketpcfreak.tripod.com/NewsImages/EricssonMicrosoft-CellPhone.jpg

[Ed Hansberry]

Yeah, I can see it now.... 'invalid or missing DLL in "Breaks.exe", unable to execute'...

AHHHHHHH.... *CRASH*.

:roll:

Hey, someone was going to say it... might as well be me! :oops:

Joe - ever had a bad .dll on your Pocket PC (forgetting pathetically written third party apps)

Besides - this is being used for the entertainment/nav system.

[jlc, just jlc]

Great, now I can get BSOD in my car - I guess that's what MS means by putting the Windows experience everywher (and Yes, I have seen MS's hotel management system as well as airport infromation systems crash and display error messages).

[/dev/niall]

Joe - ever had a bad .dll on your Pocket PC (forgetting pathetically written third party apps)


I'm guessing he was making a joke.

[Ed Hansberry]

I'm guessing he was making a joke.

I suppose. It just gets old people talking about Windows reliability and basing everything on Win3.1/Win9x code base. NT/CE are very stable products and are no more likely to crash than Unix. We have some NT4 & Win2K servers here that haven't been rebooted in months.

[new_chubbergott]

:lol: And of course, if your car breaks down, just close all the windows, open them up again and all will be well (just don't customize it or you'll have to buy the car again).










I'm guessing he was making a joke.







NT/CE are very stable products and are no more likely to crash than Unix.



I don't think that's strictly true, but, I'll grant that it does depend what you use them for.



We have a number of NT and UN*X servers in our heavy aircraft maintenance engineering facility and the most reliable by a very long way are the UN*X servers which only go down when we tell them to. That's why they are the machines that deal with the mission critical functions and we leave the NT machines to handle the lighter duties of storing files and sharing printers.

[Scott R]

I seem to recall Jason pointing out that this was a Pocket PC site when asked why he wouldn't include Palm (and other PDA) forums. Yet these stories don't really have anything to do with the Pocket PC.

Scott

[/dev/niall]

I suppose. It just gets old people talking about Windows reliability and basing everything on Win3.1/Win9x code base. NT/CE are very stable products and are no more likely to crash than Unix. We have some NT4 & Win2K servers here that haven't been rebooted in months.

I will agree that such jokes can get old, but they're funny for a reason. I'm sure you can remember the pain of blue screens and error dialogs because of odd hardware combinations, bad drivers, etc. ;) It helps to laugh.
That being said, my Win2k desktop only crashes when I use my Radeon to view television. I have no illusions as to where the fault lies (ATI and it's poor drivers), but why does it need to take down the entire operating system? That's bad OS design, and proof that NT still has work ahead. I've also had my PocketPC hang because of an errant application. That too is bad OS design, and that's why I find things like this funny - I can relate.

[/dev/niall]

I seem to recall Jason pointing out that this was a Pocket PC site when asked why he wouldn't include Palm (and other PDA) forums. Yet these stories don't really have anything to do with the Pocket PC.

I think it's pretty obvious it's a Microsoft/Windows CE site. It's pretty hard to draw a line and say "We will not cover anything beyond this". I mean, all these products are supposed to work together; you synchronize your PocketPC with your desktop, which is likely running a Microsoft operating system. Could be that your PocketPC is also your mobile phone, could be that you also have a SmartPhone. If you have both, don't you want them synchronized? Won't you want your car's computer to be aware of them? It's all about convergance and getting your toys to work together. I've enjoyed the news here lately, even if most of it has not been directly related to the PocketPC.

[Jason Dunn]

I seem to recall Jason pointing out that this was a Pocket PC site when asked why he wouldn't include Palm (and other PDA) forums. Yet these stories don't really have anything to do with the Pocket PC.


Hence the "Off Topic" category that Ed used. :roll:

[Ed Hansberry]

I seem to recall Jason pointing out that this was a Pocket PC site when asked why he wouldn't include Palm (and other PDA) forums. Yet these stories don't really have anything to do with the Pocket PC.

And thus we are in the Off-Topic section of the site, which if you will notice is "Completely random things that don't related directly to the Pocket PC, but usually cool technology items.". I also tied it in to Pocket PC's just a bit showing that BMW, for example, would be far more likely to deploy Pocket PC based PDA's to their employees since they have experience CE programmers on staff.

You have somehting to contribute Scott, please do. Want to gripe and complain go elsewhere. :roll:

[CharlieG]

I guess this one just reinforces the analogy of Pocket PC:BMW ; Palm:Honda even more.

Between this board and the buzz, anyone else think we should just rename the "rolleyes" smiley after our buddy Scott?

[Master O'Mayhem]

Will this BMW get me into the FanFests?

[Hans the Hedgehog]

I'm guessing he was making a joke.

I suppose. It just gets old people talking about Windows reliability and basing everything on Win3.1/Win9x code base. NT/CE are very stable products and are no more likely to crash than Unix. We have some NT4 & Win2K servers here that haven't been rebooted in months.


Well, Ed, I guess when even Gates said at Comdex ... " ... Bill Gates issued a confession to the computer world this weekend, saying Microsoft's software crashes too often and is too hard to use..." we all tend to joke quite a bit about it.

CE might be stable, but there's no shortage of discussions on all this and other boards about the amount of resetting both soft and hard done to the PPC devices. Sure, it might be poorly written software at times, but what about when it is Media Player or other "official" programs that take the machine down?

Personally, I reboot my machines enough on my own because I like preventative medicine... Just my own paranoia after owning DOS boxes, 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, 2000 boxes, I guess. :P

Happy tapping... the life of a PDA User.

Hans

[RobertCF]

I wonder how many times we'll have to "soft reset" the car....?

[JMountford]

So I asume that Solitare will be included.

Who covers tech support, BMW or Microsoft?

Who figures out whether it is a CD Tray or REALLY is a cup holder?!

What about the guy who calls and can't figure out how to turn the car on?

When voice recognition and automobile driving functions are integrated into the computer, I wonder what will happen when you tell the car to break, or close all windows? "Leave application running" "Car off".

At the drive through you order a Big Mac while the computer goes on line and orders a G4 from Apple.

[Bruno]

I suppose. It just gets old people talking about Windows reliability and basing everything on Win3.1/Win9x code base. NT/CE are very stable products and are no more likely to crash than Unix. We have some NT4 & Win2K servers here that haven't been rebooted in months.

I will agree that such jokes can get old, but they're funny for a reason. I'm sure you can remember the pain of blue screens and error dialogs because of odd hardware combinations, bad drivers, etc. ;) It helps to laugh.
That being said, my Win2k desktop only crashes when I use my Radeon to view television. I have no illusions as to where the fault lies (ATI and it's poor drivers), but why does it need to take down the entire operating system? That's bad OS design, and proof that NT still has work ahead. I've also had my PocketPC hang because of an errant application. That too is bad OS design, and that's why I find things like this funny - I can relate.


Please read the Microsoft Windows NT history...

Windows NT 3.1, 3.5 and 3.51 all had Graphics subsystems running in user mode. So in the three first versions of Windows NT a graphics driver couldnt crash the computer.
But that ment that graphics were slower due to the extra layers of protection built in. So when NT 4.0 entered the market, Microsoft made the bold move to move the Graphics drivers into the kernel (Where already all the other drivers where running). This made NT4 quick enough to handle graphics intensive applications (like DirectX) but at the same time made Windows vulnerable to badly written Graphics Drivers.

Now I dont know about you, but I prefer to have quick graphics in my system opposed to absolutely bullet proof OS. Just be sure to get stable drivers and dont upgrade until new drivers get certified through Windows Update.
And yes, only buy hardware from manufacturers that are known to supply god drivers. :D

End of history lesson.