On Monday Microsoft announced plans to share more of its Windows CE source code with device makers. This comes as great news for device makers and developers who have so far had pretty restricted options. Microsoft is also allowing others to change its source code, and then compile it for commercial use. Hopefully this move will give Windows CE a much needed kick start.
Hoping to boost the use of its Windows CE software in devices, Microsoft Corp. plans to announce on Monday that it will share more of the operating system's source code and allow device makers to make changes to that code. The announcement marks the first time that Microsoft will allow others to make changes to the operating system source code, compile the code for use in commercial products and not have to share their changes with Microsoft or anybody else, said John Starkweather, a product manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.
Windows CE was developed for devices including consumer electronics, wireless routers, industrial controllers, handheld computers, set-top boxes, VoIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) phones and thin clients. It competes with proprietary operating systems as well as with versions of the open source Linux operating system designed for embedded use. "The option to ship derivatives of Windows CE will give device makers another opportunity to innovate, thus we will see a further expansion of the types of devices that are powered by Windows CE," Starkweather said.
News source: InfoWorld
Hoping to boost the use of its Windows CE software in devices, Microsoft Corp. plans to announce on Monday that it will share more of the operating system's source code and allow device makers to make changes to that code. The announcement marks the first time that Microsoft will allow others to make changes to the operating system source code, compile the code for use in commercial products and not have to share their changes with Microsoft or anybody else, said John Starkweather, a product manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.
Windows CE was developed for devices including consumer electronics, wireless routers, industrial controllers, handheld computers, set-top boxes, VoIP (voice-over-Internet Protocol) phones and thin clients. It competes with proprietary operating systems as well as with versions of the open source Linux operating system designed for embedded use. "The option to ship derivatives of Windows CE will give device makers another opportunity to innovate, thus we will see a further expansion of the types of devices that are powered by Windows CE," Starkweather said.
News source: InfoWorld
Would have set the other to no show, but it has 2 comments and this has none.
Marking : DUPE!
tom
I guess cell phones and PDA's follows what users have on their PC... Windows..
But for a router for exemple...
It is better because of a "locked in" syndrome and not because of overall features/quality. There is example of devices where Windows CE was used and the result was not better then a device using Linux. Like the Microsoft wi-fi routers... built around Windows CE. Linksys routers are in my opinion by far better hardware. And in fact, since popular ones like the WRT54G use open-source Linux based architecture, there is now a growing community offering modified firmware adding features not built-in by default.
They are releasing more source code to developers? It sounds like they are kind of going in an "open source" way.
I thought they where just bashing open source and saying it's a bad way to go. Now they see that opening it's source code will unravel ways for the future.
Without Linux, there would be no future :::
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