Microsoft To Add Yet Another Smartphone OS This Year

GMGruman writes "Someone at Microsoft either really loves mobile operating systems or can't make up his mind as to which to use, because Microsoft Thursday announced yet another mobile OS, its fifth. The new Windows Embedded Handheld OS will succeed Windows Mobile 6.5 and run on at least some existing Windows Mobile smartphones. It is not the same mobile OS, known as Windows Phone 7, that Microsoft earlier this year said would replace Windows Mobile and break with it in terms of compatibility so Microsoft could better compete with the iPhone and Google Android OS."

Comments

Re:They're all proprietary pieces of shit.

[Anonymous Coward]

You're making the false assumption that it's the market that decides what operating systems are available on smart phones. Hate to break it to you, but all cell phones are a terribly proprietary business with a huge barrier to entry, and if all of the present players decide that shit is the best thing to run on smart phones then that is what will run on smart phones, even if there exist holy open alternatives that will save babies from being eaten.

Re:They're all proprietary pieces of shit.

[SpazmodeusG]

Try a Nokia n900.
It's pretty much straight up Linux with the command line and apt-get ready to go right out of the box.

Re:Windows EH and Windows Phone 7 are two

[Tapewolf]

So would this be a fair assessment for someone familiar with the current product lineup?

1. WEC7 is a rebranding/retread of Windows CE 6. There will be industrial PDAs using it like the MC55, Psion Ikon, DAPtech etc
2. WEH is basically the Windows Mobile shell on top of WEC7, just as WM6 was the shell on top of CE5. In theory it should be possible to recompile/port existing C++ codebases and will be a useful upgrade path for large corporations who currently run their bespoke stocktaking/delivery/survey applications on top of WM6.
3. Windows Phone 7 is a completely new offering built on the WEC7 kernel. It has a locked-down userland aimed at being flashy for the consumer market which cannot run native code (and is useless if you have 8 years of C++ codebase you want to run on it).

Re:Steve Ballmer is an idiot

[605dave]

I was at D8, and I can tell you Ballmer was laughed at too. By midway through his interview, everyone within three rows were murmuring or giggling to each other. I heard the world delusional used several times. It was surreal watching the head of MS seem to be so so out of touch. But specifically, when he criticized Google for having two OS products, people guffawed. The group around me started counting how many MS currently has, and we figured around 5-6. MS needs Ballmer gone.