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A decade ago, Windows CE had better widget kits and programming environment when compared to Linux. This was especially true for touchscreen interaction. For e

A decade ago, Windows CE had better widget kits and programming environment when compared to Linux. This was especially true for touchscreen interaction. For example, Zeiss Microscopes control panels from 2006 use Windows CE. I am not sure what the advantage is today. GCC competes well with VS and more people know Qt. MS can give this away for free as it isn't a market that they own.

ekianjo 13y ago
> A decade ago, Windows CE had better widget kits and programming environment when compared to Linux. This was especially true for touchscreen interaction. And PocketPC could do almost everything an iPhone could do about... 5-6 years before the iPhone came out. Windows CE was clearly ahead of its time, but the support from Microsoft was terrible: they kept it low-key, too long.
- wyager 13y ago
  >And PocketPC could do almost everything an iPhone could do about... 5-6 years before the iPhone came out. I had a top-of-the-line PocketPC phone for three years. Saying a PocketPC could do almost everything an iPhone could do is like saying that a nail file could do almost everything a Haas CNC machine could do.
  - Roritharr 13y ago
    Without wanting to start a longer off topic debate: I think you have your analogy upside down. Compared to the iPhone 1 a top-of-the-line PocketPC phone was clearly a CNC Machine. In 2005 I used my PocketPC Phone to SSH into Unix Boxes, write long emails with its slide out keyboard, edited pictures and let people sign documents with its pen and used GPS for turn by turn navigation. In 2007 Apple released a phone that could only run web-apps without hardware support. At the time this got a big meh from me since it looked like a toy compared to my phone.
kokey 13y ago
I remember someone on the Windows CE team telling me how they wish they had the better build tools like you have on Linux. What was even more interesting was that the Windows CE team actually maintained a Linux distribution because a Windows media player device they are working on, which used Windows CE for the UI and Linux for the rest including the playing of videos.

ekianjo 13y ago

> A decade ago, Windows CE had better widget kits and programming environment when compared to Linux. This was especially true for touchscreen interaction. And PocketPC could do almost everything an iPhone could do about... 5-6 years before the iPhone came out. Windows CE was clearly ahead of its time, but the support from Microsoft was terrible: they kept it low-key, too long.

wyager 13y ago
>And PocketPC could do almost everything an iPhone could do about... 5-6 years before the iPhone came out. I had a top-of-the-line PocketPC phone for three years. Saying a PocketPC could do almost everything an iPhone could do is like saying that a nail file could do almost everything a Haas CNC machine could do.
- Roritharr 13y ago
  Without wanting to start a longer off topic debate: I think you have your analogy upside down. Compared to the iPhone 1 a top-of-the-line PocketPC phone was clearly a CNC Machine. In 2005 I used my PocketPC Phone to SSH into Unix Boxes, write long emails with its slide out keyboard, edited pictures and let people sign documents with its pen and used GPS for turn by turn navigation. In 2007 Apple released a phone that could only run web-apps without hardware support. At the time this got a big meh from me since it looked like a toy compared to my phone.

kokey 13y ago

I remember someone on the Windows CE team telling me how they wish they had the better build tools like you have on Linux. What was even more interesting was that the Windows CE team actually maintained a Linux distribution because a Windows media player device they are working on, which used Windows CE for the UI and Linux for the rest including the playing of videos.