Windows XP Pocket PC

[Ackibat]

Here's one from a brand-spanking newbie as this is my first post. :)

I have been reading about some of the miniature PCs running Windows XP. Do you think Microsoft will get especially creative to make a "Pocket PC" style of interface for Windows XP designed for a PPC or miniature Tablet PC form factor?

Or do you think the PPC will continue to use Windows CE?

[Janak Parekh]

Well, it's possible, but hardware needs to evolve.

If units like the Oqo (http://www.oqo.com/) become cheap and popular, you might very well see future PPC's built on XP Embedded. Having said that, there are still some worthwhile advantages to CE.

--bdj

[programcsharp]

There is already a device with full-blown winxp and a small form-factor - the tiqit eightythree. http://www.tiqit.com/eightythree.html While its not yet commercially available, it's a good milestone in the development of small mobile devices with full-fledged computing power.

[Pony99CA]

I have been reading about some of the miniature PCs running Windows XP. Do you think Microsoft will get especially creative to make a "Pocket PC" style of interface for Windows XP designed for a PPC or miniature Tablet PC form factor?

Or do you think the PPC will continue to use Windows CE?
Microsoft's Tablet PC operating system supports handwriting/ink, it seems, so why not combine something like the OQO with the Tablet PC OS.

As processors get more powerful and RAM gets cheaper, the need for Windows CE (in a PDA, at least) may disappear. As long as applications can be made smart enough to reformat themselves, I'd rather use real Outlook and real Word on a handheld than Pocket Outlook and Pocket Word.

Steve

[Ackibat]

I'd rather use real Outlook and real Word on a handheld than Pocket Outlook and Pocket Word.

My wife was just saying that yesterday...how nice it would be to use native PC formats on a Pocket PC. Of course a PPC probably wouldn't have the horsepower to run Doom III anytime soon, but 400Mhz might cut it for Outlook, Word & Excel.

I wonder if the XScale processor could run WinXP? It probably doesn't support the right instruction set. Crusoe might be the way to go.

[Peter Foot]

Apart from the bragging factor of having your full desktop os in your pocket do you actually need XP in a Pocket PC.

XP requires loads of disk space consists of a lot of cobbled together code from a long line of window products and to get any benefit out of most of the APIs it has which CE doesn't have requires big graphics output, two buttoned (or more) mouse, removable storage such as CD-ROM, cd-writers etc

Stick to what works best, there may be features worth adding to CE but it is a sensible embedded operating system. Make it more robust

[CoreyJF]

I don't think anyone was suggesting a full blown Xp. Using Embedded xp would only further help with compatablity issues.

Apart from the bragging factor of having your full desktop os in your pocket do you actually need XP in a Pocket PC.

XP requires loads of disk space consists of a lot of cobbled together code from a long line of window products and to get any benefit out of most of the APIs it has which CE doesn't have requires big graphics output, two buttoned (or more) mouse, removable storage such as CD-ROM, cd-writers etc

Stick to what works best, there may be features worth adding to CE but it is a sensible embedded operating system. Make it more robust

[Sven Johannsen]

I disagree (with peter). I think it is essentially technically feasible to make a full windows powered 'Pocket PC' now. Whether it is needed seems debatable, but how many requests/complaints would just not happen if you did. We wouldn't have the issue of round tripping Word messing up the formatting, no Access on the PPC, can I view a Visio doc, I can't do e-banking because PIE doesn't support it, etc.

If you look at a Sony Picture book, you get the idea the size issue is not that tough to crack. The picture book has a full size keyboard, and a screen to compliment it. Remove those requirements and you likely could repackage the guts into a reasonable PPC.

With the advent of XP tablet edition, you have the screen I/O paradigm that eliminates the two button mouse and keyboard problem. Need a host USB port though, so addition of a USB mouse and keyboard would be possible. Heck, there are already USB port replicators for laptops that could be used for desktop docking.

One issue always brought up is the fact that PPCs never shut down, so there 'powerup' speed is really due to there being in standby, not off. That would require lots of Flash ROM/RAM. I just rebuilt an XP machine and loaded Office Pro w Frontpage, plus Mappoint w/maps, Publisher, Project, Adobe Acrobat (full), Paint Shop Pro, and a few other apps. Loaded all fully, you know, top of the tree, run all from computer. I had less than 5G on the drive. That may seem like a lot, but 1 Gig CF cards are out today, and the chip isn't the size of the package. In a couple of years, I can see sufficient Flash RAM being available to support a full windows PPC.

Probably we are not talking about XP or Win2000 anyway. A full windows PPC would likely run a .net flavor, but not CE.net. Surely a minimized version could be built. The key would be to support regular desktop apps (which is largely a processor issue) and provide the ability to load the apps into Flash ROM, a desire many have for the current PPC.

I think it could happen in a couple of years. I want it to. If for no other reason, it would eliminate the requirement for ActiveSync :)

[Gen-M]

I had less than 5G on the drive. That may seem like a lot, but 1 Gig CF cards are out today, and the chip isn't the size of the package. In a couple of years, I can see sufficient Flash RAM being available to support a full windows PPC.


I agree. I'm more concerned with power requirements. ARM uses less power than Pentium or Celeron.

Where did I put that fuel cell :wink: