Wait, news on an actual operating system? What, no H264 news? It’s not even Apple-related? Yes, you’re not the only one who’s cynical. Anyway, we always assumed that Windows Phone 7 would be built on top of Windows Embedded CE 6.0, but as it turns out, that’s not entirely accurate – it actually uses the next version of Windows CE: Windows Embedded Compact 7. No information has been made available about this new version as of yet. Update: And here’s an article on how the rumour mill suggests the future of Microsoft’s mobile strategy includes replacing Windows Embedded Compact with… Windows NT. Yeppers.
Yes, this is all getting ridiculously complicated, and part of that is caused by Microsoft’s categorical inability to properly name most of their products. Microsoft is in the middle of renaming its embedded range of products, meaning the the version following Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is named Windows Embedded Compact 7.
And this new version is what Windows Phone 7 is built on, says Microsoft’s Olivier Bloch. In other words, Microsoft skips Windows Embedded CE 6.0 for its mobile phone operating system, opting to go for the latest and greatest version. Whether or not this is a good idea remains to be seen; no information about this new version has been made available yet, so we don’t know just how much has been changed.
Boch states that Windows Phone 7 “is based on the Windows Embedded Compact 7 core”, meaning that it’s probably been heavily customised for this purpose. Engadget asked for clarification from Microsoft, but this only made things less clear:
Windows Phone 7 is based on the Windows Embedded CE kernel – the next generation of the Windows Embedded CE platform will be Windows Embedded Compact 7 when released, and the current version is Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3. Although Windows Phone 7 was built on the Windows Embedded CE kernel at its core, the Windows Phone team has incorporated innovative features and functionality on top of the platform to develop an OS specifically designed to meet the needs of mobile phone manufacturers.
Engadget argues that this rather verbose answer means that Windows Phone 7 indeed started out using Windows Embedded CE 6.0, but that over time, as Windows Embedded Compact 7 (I’m feeling dizzy) matured, they slowly but surely switched to the newer product. It will be interesting to find out what new features this version will bring. Bloch states that more information will be released over the coming months.
…I am still confused. It’s still CE 6.0 merged with another [abstraction] layer? Or the best bits of CE 6.0 with some other experimental embedded kernel/OS?
In reply to the person above me, Windows CE 7.0 builds on top (Edit: I mean that that it is the next version after Windows CE 6.0R3 rather than a break with the past – no word has leaked on the changes though) of Windows CE 6.0R3 to which Windows Phone 7 was based upon originally – it appears that the changes to Windows 6.0R3 is sufficient enough to warrant labelling and having a new version of Windows CE.
I wouldn’t be surprised; if Windows CE 7.0 is released when Windows Phone 7 is released, then I don’t think it is unrealistic. Windows NT right now is being modularised with the ongoing win-min project so by the time that we do see a ‘Windows CE’ based on Windows NT will be a highly modularised Windows NT. The net result is that all of the unneeded stuff can be heaved to one side, with Silverlight being the API to develop upon, which means you can pretty much pull out what ever is the underlying operating system core and replace it at will – for the end user everything keeps on ticking.
If you have a look at the work being done by Microsoft, in the future I can see a single operating system core that spans from desktop to laptop to hand held device with components being added and/or subtracted based on the targeted platform. I’d say that the embedded versions are going to end up relying on the Silverlight in the future, and maybe the result of that is an upscaling of applications from the mobile to the desktop – not necessarily the same version to run on each but code that is modularised is compiled into silverlight editions each targeted at a given platform so a more feature rich version running on the desktop and a stripped down on an embedded device but they’re all derived from the same code.
Edited 2010-05-05 03:51 UTC
Plus, there have been version of Windows NT Embedded since the NT 4.0 days.
But the embedded version was little more than a marginally slimmed down version of the real thing; it sat as a mid point between a full desktop and Windows CE, where as what the synopsis points to is actually Windows NT scaling down further to the types of markets that Windows CE is used in.
I am pretty sure that MS will use the OS as a basis for a Max-Ipad competitor.
Sure they could use some Courier tech, but they already scrapped that and while MS could support 5 operating systems (Windows (32, 64bit), Kin, CE, WP7) I don’t think they want to.
So a WP7 tablet will be out in 2011. Bets?
Highly unlikely.
CE7 is more likely but I think the most likely is Win7 with a custom shell (and other tweaks obviously).
On an unrelated note: I’m slightly amused by how all of their OSs seems to be on (or due to be on) version 7 (lucky for some). But then I am easily amused.
OK, betcha.
I don’t think MS is still so stupid that they will burden a tablet with x86 Windows apps. That is just a really insane and fast way to get angry customers. Windows cannot compete with touch OSes like Android,Meego and IphoneOS, that is a proven fact. That pig has had lipstick for years now without success.
The new MS obviously thinks “Less is more”, but they will need a better browser for a tablet, but updates to WP7 will include one I guess.
Edit: Even Intels new anounced x86 Atoms for tablets don’t support BIOS or EFI. So Windows 7 in its current form is out of the question.
Edited 2010-05-05 09:18 UTC
I agree with you. I just think MS would choose WP7 over CE7 (after all, the phone functions in WP are redundant on a tablet) or NT (as lets not forget the Min-Win project).
A new phone platform doesn’t constitute as a new MS on the whole.
Case in point: Win7 clearly isn’t a “less is more” OS – though I do still think it’s the best thing they’ve released in 10 years.
I didn’t say Win7 in it’s current form. I said a Win7 based OS (let’s not forget that the iPhone OS was originally based upon OS X).
Plus it’s already known that NT can support other CPU architectures so I don’t think it’s that big of a leap to assume that NT could also be adapted to support non-EFI/BIOS devices too (though I will admit I’m no expert in kernel programming).
So all in all, I just can’t see WP7 making it onto an official MS tablet.
So the next version of the Microsoft mobile OS uses the next version of the Microsoft mobile OS kernel?
What’s next? A story about how Windows 8 will use the next iteration of the Windows NT kernel?
The rumor about them switching the kernel to NT is interesting, but then that’s just a rumor that any blog could generate in 30 seconds.
So, a story about how Microsoft’ next-gen mobile operating system uses a completely new and as of yet unannounced version of their “open” source embedded operating system is not news?
People never cease to amaze me.
it’s news to me. infact, its my favorite kind of news…
What is Windows Embedded CE 6.0 compared to Windows Embedded Compact 7 anyway ??
I just read an article in Microsoft’s Visual Studio magazine. They are going to move developers to Silverlight running on a new version of CE. Support for older CE apps will not be supported as I understand it. They are encouraging developers to develop native apps in Silverlight initially using C#, but also later to include VB.net. The standard .NET namespaces will (mostly) be supported under Silverlight so techically you can take your Windows apps and directly cross compile them to the new phone OS after changing the app’s interface. Apps will run natively this way and not under a browser. The rumor of switching to NT kernel is totally wrong…OS has to run on low end ARM processors, which is what new CE does. This approach brings an unprecidended level of code portability between Windows .NET apps and the new phone platform. Basically any Windows developer can immediately start writing for the new platform with no learning curve. The other cool thing is that all new dev tools for programming the CE Phone 7 platform are completely free (as in no charge for Visual Studio for phone dev). These two aspects alone will spur a ton of development for this platform.
Edited 2010-05-05 12:24 UTC
WinCE will not be changed to the NT core. there has been expiriments for this since NT4, but it was always decided that the CE core was a better fit for embeded and mobile needs in certain scenarios.
and about WinCE 7.0