Poll: What is a WM2003 compatibility layer worth to you?

Hi,

With the proviso of having a sort of demo for me to test and find it delivers I will pay up to $20.
The more general use makes it even more atractive.
I will support any of development activities in general, but will be interesting if this proyect join forces with for example, the damnsoft one.

oski

37 votes so far..

Remember there is no MIPS WM2003 device, so there's no MIPS WM2003 software - unless it's open source and you rebuild it for MIPS. The mention of MIPS is only for potentially running some PPC (2000 and 2002) software, I think.

Some of you sound like voting in this poll is a lot of commitment... No, voting here does not mean you're agreeing to a sales contract, as far as I can tell It seems to me this is only a survey to estimate the market for this product. Just vote as if this runs all WM2003 software that you'll be interested to use on your HPC2000. I doubt it will run all WM2003 software, not by a long shot, but that's not the point; the point is to let the author know how many people are interested in paying and how much, if the product does what they want.

If the product does come out, I'd be surprised if the author promises compatibility with all WM2003 software. The best scenario is that you can ask for compatibility with certain software, so the author can verify compatibility before selling the layer to you. There will probably be some software that simply will never work with the layer (for example Today plugins), in which case you can decide not to buy. But that's just my guess; I cannot predict the future... not accurately anyway

Hmm, I could be wrong, but did not Pocket PC 2002 drop MIPS and SH3? I could be wrong, and I certainly do not mean to criticize you..

I'm interested in a better browser and Skype for J720. $20 is OK.

If I recall correctly what I've read here, there were no SH3 or MIPS Pocket PC 2002 devices; however, there may have been a few Pocket PC 2002 apps for which MIPS binaries were compiled - perhaps the developers were hedging their bets.

I'd be willing to pay $10 if it just runs Opera well, for a more general WM2003 compatibility layer I'd be willing to go for $20 depending on its capabilities and compatability.

I think we understand, but without knowing what it can actually do, and how well it does it - how can we give an estimate?

"I've got this house for sale, with a garage, and it'll hold one or more people - how much would you pay for it?" - see what I mean? You don't know where it is (remember the old saw "location, location, location", you don't know how many cars the garage will hold, you don't know how many square feet, you don't know how old it is, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I'm NOT negative towards this project and would like it very much. But I do feel enough questions have been raised that it would be prudent at this time for isotherm to give answers to some of them.

What's the long-term committment to the product? I realize that what's said today may not last forever (life happens), but at at least an understand of if there's a committment beyond a couple of months. Without question - there will be bugs, software won't work quite right, and it's a long haul to get things to work. Opera mobile is at 8.6 - is that the end of development for this product? Or will it be continued when there's Opera 8.7, or 8.8?

What's the licensing? isotherm mentioned registering it to each HPC, requiring those with multiple HPCs (or processors) to purchase one license for each - so what is the licensing to be?

What's it run - how about a list of software (even at this stage)? A screen shot of opera looks great - but that doesn't show what each dialog box looks like, etc. Am I still going to need winwatch to scroll around a PPC screen on a HVGA screen? What things do/dont' work in opera - or is it 100% operational across each function?

Will there be the ability to trial the software?

I believe answers to these questions will give all of us a much better idea of what the software is worth to each one of us.

We're talking about whether, in principle without being bound contractually , you'd pay $0,$5,$10,$20 or higher for a compatability layer that'd allow you to run PPC software on an HPC. You're not committing to buy a house. It isn't even remotely the same thing.

Some great questions and points have been made, but please can we not drown the pollster in questions and, in some cases, demands to do something this way or that!

Enough discussion of the philosophy - that's not what the thread was intended for, I feel!

tundrwd, here's my opinion: the poll says: "up to x $" so i voted "up to 20$" assuming that it will be as great as i expect it to be. if not, i'll pay less. it's that simple.

there was no mips or sh3 ppc2002 device.
but isotherm could release a package for sh3 (hpc pro of course), sh3 hpc's don't even have a decent aygshell atm and it would help a lot, if there was a doclist (there is NONE at all so forget about running mfc sh3 ppc software - lots of programs are mfc).

takwu, today plugins already work on hpc2000! ask TFGBD
so there's nothing that is impossible!

Of course I would prefer a free version of the mod but I think 20 USD is a reasonable price to pay (and I hope it will be less ). But only if isotherm can certify that more apps will work with it (not just Opera).

Now I've been reading about having free version or Open source version... I think people are mixing things up... isotherm could make the source open and charge for the binaries (optimized for each platform)... I for one would gladly pay for the binaries because I not really interested in learning/messing with sources and compilers...

But there might be another problem: *MAYBE* what he is doing is not entirely legal [Disclaimer: MAYBE is the word I stress!]... I mean, if he is using code from original files it would be ilegal not only to sell but also to give away... Of course by sharing for free without any financial gain his "sin" would be lower... but a "sin" nonetheless. (if original code is used you couldn't opensource it or Microsoft would easily find out about the ilegality.)

But of course I don't know anything about coding or about what isotherm coded... so everything I wrote is just speculation.

Off Topic, sorry:
Cmonex, I am always surprised that you know a lot about "interesting discoveries" made by different forum members, even if they didn't mention it publicly in this forum... So, without you, we would never be informed of some important things for the community... I also don't understand why forum members don't share their knowledge themselves (if it's legal of course)...
Tell us the truth, Cmonex: Is there some kind of an HPC "secret society" where a few selected gurus keep a sacred knowledge ???

Oh, I think I remember hearing about that.. I think there was this site somewhere that had MIPS or SH3 PPC2002 versions of software...

There is nothing illegal about it - all code is 100% original. As far as I can tell, Microsoft withholds most of the source code that would be required to do this kind of thing anyway.

I agree (as the poll creator) - this poll is to gauge interest assuming it does what you want it to do - this would be the best case scenario possible for both parties. I'm still working on the software and testing it, but I'm not going to make any statements until I'm sure I can stand by them.

Secret society: Join #hpcdev sometime.

Thanks for the clarification