A peek at Longhorn Embedded...

The Windows XP Embedded team held an online chat on MSDN yesterday, the Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE chats can be pretty interesting, TechWeb have reported on parts of the chat that talk about Longhorn Embedded – it looks like some of the plans are starting to become public.

I wonder how much research reporters do before they write their articles, I'm sure that most reporters are busy (aren't we all!) - I'm still surprised by the number of articles that are published that 'assume' that Windows CE is only designed for PDA's or mobile, handheld devices - while it's true that the most visible examples of embedded devices running Windows CE is the Smartphone or Pocket PC (commonly known as Windows Mobile), it's also true that Windows CE is used in a wide range of other not quite so visible devices.

Last time I looked Windows CE was also a componentized operating system, that’s being used in more than PDA’s, minimum build size is about 200kb, Windows CE is a hard-real time operating system that’s being used in industrial control, robotics, sewing machines (yes, even sewing machines – the Bernina Artista 200E uses Windows CE – I think they needed a Multi-Threaded Operating System ), point of sale devices, and even PDA’s.

– Mike