Windows Phone 8 will not use CE

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-phone-8-previe...

WP8 will be based on Windows 8 ARM, not Windows CE, as WP7.x did.

I am excited about Windows 8 ARM, and now WP8. Sorry CE, you have been my hero for a long time, and you still power my favorite device which is WP7.5 (and perhaps 7.6 when it comes out). However your time has come, so farewell and I will miss you. Thank you!

Tak

Ah, that's most interesting. So Windows 8 ARM is going to replace Windows CE and most of Windows Embedded by the sounds of it. That'll make Microsoft's job easier in supporting a single code base for multiple devices and platforms.

Sadly, this probably means that Windows CE and therefore us are finally going to be condemned to but a footnote in history.

Hm.... this news is both good and bad news...

Well, I guess that's that. WinCE has been around for a long time and in my opinion (probably more sentimental reasons then anything else), it's been my favorite mobile OS. I'm not a huge fan of the new Windows 8 or the new WM OS. My current (and new) Windows laptop will probably be the last Windows machine I buy new. Mac OS X will be my mainstay for now instead of switching between the two.

Two things that I loved dearly has died. Symbian and WinCE. The world will never be the same.

Do you all honestly think that Windows 8 ARM will be running inside all the small embedded systems around (kiosks, digital picture frames, etc)? CE is unlikely to die anytime soon IMHO, though it may no longer be part of the mobile computing world.

If Microsoft are going to cross port the compact .net frameworks between CE and Windows 8 then why not. Microsoft have been working towards modularisation of Windows for years - Windows Server 2008 Core for example which has none of the shell. Windows NT, XP and 7 Embedded which are x86 orientated mini kernel versions of the same thing.

It all depends on whether Microsoft can pull the kernel footprint down to near-CE levels and whether they get greedy and try and keep the licensing fees so high. If they pull it off then they have no incentive to continue to develop CE.

EDIT: Uh oh http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/06/windowsnt_kernel_apollo_not...

Very interesting, however...

When WP7 first came out, many people were impressed. That led some to speculate that WP7 could be further developed into a tablet OS, ala iOS and Android. MS didn't comment on that, until a year later when they announced that Windows 8 ARM will instead be the tablet OS.

The obvious problem of course is app compatibility and portability between MS's phone OS and tablet OS. Again just like iOS and Android have.

It makes perfect sense for MS to attempt this, developing WP8 on the same kernel as Win8 for tablet. If they didn't want to do it, they should've stuck with WinCE for their tablet OS.

So the only question is CAN they do it? Well, I believe that given time, they eventually can. And they will delay WP8 + stretch out WP7.x until that happens. At least that's what makes sense to me.

I don't think Windows CE ever really fulfilled it's potential. After Pocket PC's started to fade away other OSes began to fill the gap. Apart from 7" netbooks it's very much forgotten as a core OS.