Microsoft Releases Windows CE 5.0 Beta

While Microsoft has strong developer and partner networks, Gartner research vice president Martin Reynolds told TechNewsWorld that it is unlikely any company will dominate the embedded market because it is so fragmented.

Promising a more integrated and economical development environment, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has released a beta of its newest embedded operating system (OS), Windows CE 5.0, at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco.

The company touted cost savings that can be achieved using the new OS, thanks to the blending of command-line and graphical integrated development environments (IDE). Microsoft also pointed to increased support for drivers, chipsets and its DirectX desktop programming model, aimed at providing richer graphics and multimedia features that are closer to the desktop experience.

The software giant faces a much different situation in the market for embedded systems -- smaller, lighter operating systems used in set-top boxes, mobile devices and other machines that are simpler than PCs -- compared with its dominant position in the desktop operating-system sector.

"Within CE, Microsoft has not been number one," Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio told TechNewsWorld. "So, in that situation, they're going to work harder to stay in the game, improve the software and play catch-up. That's what this is about."

Unified Development

Microsoft, which distributed preview copies of the new Windows CE 5.0 at this week's embedded conference, said the final release of the software should become available this summer. The preview also will be available for download through the company's developer network beginning April 1st, Microsoft said.

The company is hoping that by enabling developers to use the command line inside the graphical IDE, as opposed to switching between the two development environments, Windows CE 5.0 will save companies time and money.

"Unifying the tools capabilities is a brilliant move for Windows CE," said Doug Boling of embedded consultancy Boling Consulting. "Being able to work in one unified development environment where you only need to use that one toolset for building, debugging and deploying an operating system image will save OEMs a lot of time by reducing complex development issues."

Microsoft also said the new Windows CE 5.0 will feature increased hardware support out of the box, higher security settings, advanced multimedia capabilities and automated testing tools.

Big Windows, Little Windows

For his part, Gartner (NYSE: IT) research vice president Martin Reynolds said Microsoft is trying to tie its desktop operating systems, such as Windows XP, closer to the embedded OS so that making something for CE also has value in XP.

"They're getting their development environment aligned on big Windows and little Windows," Reynolds told TechNewsWorld.

The analyst, who referred to the need for less-cumbersome operating systems in embedded devices, said the Windows CE 5.0 release is part of a larger goal to create a common feel in all Windows development, "from pager to desktop."

Tech Focus with Gates

The Yankee Group's DiDio credited the CE 5.0 effort in part to the more prominent role Microsoft head Bill Gates has taken since serving as chief scientist for the company.

"I can't tell you how much he's focusing on technology rather than business," DiDio said. "They've done a very credible job at really making their products work better."

She added that as developers seek to work with computing environments that will be profitable, they likely will be excited about the new Windows CE. However, DiDio also referred to gains by Linux, which is an attractive opportunity in the embedded space as well.

"Linux looks like green fields," she said. "It's getting better, and developers are going for that, too. Right now, you'd have to be a fool to ignore the Linux market."

Fragmented Market

Reynolds referred to a large field of competitors in the embedded operating-system market, with Symbian taking hold on mobile phones, Palm succeeding in handhelds and other consumer devices, and Linux, which is most prominent in the TiVO digital video recorder, also being backed by a Japanese consortium.

Indicating that the biggest challenge for all embedded players is price because of low profit margins in this space, Reynolds said the price issue has hampered Microsoft's embedded efforts. And while Microsoft does have strong developer and partner networks, he added that it is unlikely any company will dominate the embedded market because it is so fragmented

Windows and Open Source Play Well Together

Through its Open Source Census initiative, OpenLogic hopes to gain a clearer picture of the OSS landscape. Now in its ninth month, the census has found a sizable presence of OSS among Windows users, European governments and the financial industry.

Give your site visitors confidence to transact on your site with the Extended Validation (EV) SSL green address bar from VeriSign. With online users rapidly moving to high security browsers you will want to let them know that your site is safe.

Open source adoption is growing rapidly, but adopters in U.S. are lagging behind European enthusiasm, according to software provider OpenLogic.

OpenLogic announced Tuesday it has discovered more than 300,000 open source package and project installations in use around the world through its Open Source Census. OpenLogic initiated the global survey last December.

The Open Source Census is a worldwide collaborative project. The goal is to collect and share quantitative data on the use of open source software. Computer users may volunteer their machines to be remotely scanned and contribute to the census' findings.

Government agencies and the financial industry are among the biggest users of open source software, the census has found. Also, among survey participants, Windows users are some of the biggest consumers of open source.

The survey also found that OpenOffice, an alternative and compatible office suite to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office, is installed on 73 percent of all personal computers that owners volunteered for examination. However, only 28 percent of enterprise machines made available for scanning contained OpenOffice.

"The survey will be ongoing. Starting in year two, we will have enough data to show trends of changing use patterns of open source adopters," Kim Weins, senior vice president of marketing and products at OpenLogic, told LinuxInsider.

Data Points

The survey results continue to validate trends in open source usage that OpenLogic has seen over the last few years, according to Weins. This second phase -- the gathering of data from system audits contributed by voluntary participants -- began six months ago.

The Open Source Census continues to uncover interesting trends on the global use of open source software as more computers are scanned, she said.

On average, government agencies surveyed have 123 different open source packages installed per machine. By comparison, financial services companies have 117 different packages per machine.

Governments outside the U.S., especially participants from the European Union, appear generally more supportive of open source software than U.S. governmental agencies. For instance, the U.S. averages 51 open source packages per machine, while Europe averages 68.

Linux Outpolls Windows

Perhaps among the most interesting trends is the use of open source software among Windows users. Participants who volunteered Windows machines for scanning averaged 39 open source software packages.

Open source was naturally more prevalent on Linux users' machines, with 87 packages on average. But that also includes open source software that is shipped with the Linux distributions.

The most popular packages are similar for both Windows and Linux platforms, with seven of the top 10 packages in common.

Ubuntu was found to be the most prevalent Linux OS distributions. Ubuntu Hardy (24 percent) and Ubuntu Gutsy (22 percent) account for 46 percent of the installed Linux base. By comparison, Suse Linux has 12 percent, Gentoo Linux has 7 percent, Fedora Core has 6 percent and Debian has 13 percent.

Government Push

The survey shows a solid movement in foreign governments toward open source software. Similarly, the financial services industry is involved in a lot of open source development, according to Weins.