What really annoys me - MS

[paulv]

When I paid OZ$1100 for my Jornada 565 a year and a half ago one of the key features of this machine over it's predecessors was it's upgradability - hence the flashable ROM. I felt that it was good for at least a few years.

I'm pretty happy with this machine but SHOULD be able to utilise it's flash ROM for relatively minor upgrades. PPC2003 looks like a relatively minor upgrade (apart from the .NET bits) and should be packagable to fit into a Jornada. I'm fine with paying for upgrades - but I shouldn't have to buy a new computer every year or two just to get the latest OS - imagine doing this on your desktop :(

I definitely feel ripped off - this is just the old M$ trick of building each version of the OS bigger to force customers to purchase new systems. I agree with those who say that we should be able to pick and choose which elements we want loaded - just like a desktop OS. The choice to upgrade is then left 100% up to the user as it should be - ie if you load everything and your machine runs a bit slow then that's your problem. I'm not keen on this all-or-nothing approach.

[Enderet]

Oh well, there is not much we can do about it, except not buy their PPCs or Windows Mobile. :|

[Gremmie]

WOW, let's clarify
A) That's HP's problem, the merger cut one of the products, while they probably should have supported the 565 for a bit longer, it would probably be more costly as HP has their hands full with the iPaqs.
B) OS upgrading is not Microsoft's fault, in fact, the professional version is rather small (<16MB) and it was HP's choice not to upgrade.
C) It would be incredibly contraversal to have a universal upgrade path. These devices have their own special hardware that gives it a distinct nature, let alone the natural variances of motherboards, display, etc. The only way around this would be building in PnP style drivers so a new load will load the appropriate drivers, thus leading to monster ROMs. That's why OEM's distribute them.

[maximus]

C) It would be incredibly contraversal to have a universal upgrade path. These devices have their own special hardware that gives it a distinct nature, let alone the natural variances of motherboards, display, etc. The only way around this would be building in PnP style drivers so a new load will load the appropriate drivers, thus leading to monster ROMs. That's why OEM's distribute them.


Yeah, PnP will requires a huge library of drivers to accompany the operating system. If you want PnP, you have to wait for PPCs with 1GB of internal ROM ....

[Anthony Caruana]

The decision on whether a specific device is upgraded is up to the OEM, in your case HP.

Look at the bright side. You have had a year and half of using a device that you, obviously, have gotten great value out of - otherwise you would not have kept it.

As stated on Chris D's site
Microsoft’s OEM Technology Guarantee

Microsoft has offered its OEM partners such as Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell a "technology guarantee" in order to encourage them to offer Windows Mobile 2003 upgrades for their customers that have purchased Pocket PC 2002 devices around the time of the Windows Mobile 2003 launch. The Technology Guarantee Program is an optional program between OEMs and Microsoft where OEMs may choose to either participate or to not participate. This Technology Guarantee program does NOT apply between Microsoft and the end user. This technology guarantee is from Microsoft to its OEM partners and applies to devices purchased 30 days prior to launch of Windows Mobile 2003 and 90 days following the launch. . As mentioned earlier, OEMs may decide not to participate in the Technology Guarantee Program and may choose not to offer upgrades for existing Pocket PC 2002 devices.

Existing Pocket PC 2002 Upgrades?

While all Pocket PC 2002 devices are technically upgradeable to Windows Mobile 2003, it is up to the discretion of each individual OEM as to whether they will choose to offer an upgrade. Because each Pocket PC version requires a customized ROM image that must be made for each device in order for the latest version of the Pocket PC software to run on it, Microsoft licenses its software only to the OEMs and not to consumers directly. . It’s important to note here that Microsoft does not provide software upgrades for Pocket PCs directly to consumers. In order for an OEM to offer the upgrade, the OEMs make the necessary changes based on the specific hardware model to create a specific ROM image for each model of Pocket PC. OEMs can then offer the upgrade to their customers. In some cases, OEMs may make a business decision whether or not to offer an upgrade for all models in all geographies in all languages. At the time this article was written, OEMs are currently evaluating which models and languages they plan on offering upgrades to the Windows Mobile 2003 software. I expect that pricing of upgrades from OEMs will be around $30 based on the prior upgrade pricing for Pocket PC 2002 however final pricing is set by the OEMs. I recommend that all users contact their Pocket PC OEM to find out whether or not their Pocket PC 2002 is upgradeable.

For the record, I have owned at least one device from each version of Windows CE and Pocket PC. Almost every generation of device offered some sort of upgrade path. But it was always at the discretion of the OEM. Given that a new OS seems to appear every 2 years or so, you might find that the best upgrade path is to sell your Jornada and buy a new device. That's what I have done.

Regards

[jkabaseball]

wouldn't it be nice if there was one version and every ppc could use that like all regular pc's like XP. that upgrade would be the best for the next version of ppc mobile

[Enderet]

Mmmm that would be nice...heh lets wait another year and see what 2004 comes up with :P