One of the annoying things about working with Windows CE/Mobile devices in the past is the fact that when you install applications and make configuration changes all of this is stored in volatile memory. Only the OS itself seems to be stored in flash memory. This seems to have neccesated a product like Total Recall which allows for any additional software and changes to settings to be packaged and stored somewhere in flash memory.
I am interested to know if this is something related to the actual architecture of Windows CE, perhaps a throwback to the days when flash memory was expensive. I remember old PDA's running Windows PPC had this same problem and if your backup battery went flat you have reload all the software and do all the configuration changes from scratch.
In this day and age where flash memory has become so cheap that 2Gig flash disks are being given away, does it make sense to still work on this old type of approach.
I would be a lot better if devices could install software natively to the flash disk and any configuration changes are stored permemently in flash memory as this simplifies things a lot and reduces the added complexity in deploying software and configuration settings.
Something like Total Recall could still have a place for deploying clone settings and easily configuring software without the added issues and delays caused by having to restore profiles everytime a device's internal power source is depleted.
I am not an expert in Windows CE architecture and software development, but I am talking purely from the end user/system integrator's point of view. I have read the overview at http://community.psion.com/knowledge/w/knowledgebase/comparison-of-flash-and-ram-solid-state-disks.aspx and it doesn't seem to make sense in this day and age of cheap memory and modern file systems, where we actually use flash disks everyday for editing and storing documents.
Any thoughts and input on this and what kinds of changes will be made in the future using current hardware, considering even mobile phones don't have this problem anymore.
Hi Ping.
My only and sole suggestion unfortunately is that this issue you are asking about is not a Psion issue, but one generated from Microsoft.
Why do we do this today?
In general, the decision is not one predicated on todays technology but on what yesterdays software technology can support "today".
Unlike adaptable Operating Systems and Open Operating systems (OpenBSD, Linux, Android), the ability to adapt with "yesterdays" technology is a matter of abstraction, and comprimise. All of which are relevant to your questions, but dealt with in a somewhat backward manner.
The result of which is Backup/Restore technology such as Total Recall. And that developers never get to the bare metal with some systems as compared to others. Blame MS-DOS for that mentality; but don't forget to mention Multics, Unix and VMS in the same breath while you are at it.
I question your reference to Mobile Phones; on iOS this is not true. And it is a Closed, "Walled garden" firmware with ONLY the API's and a rigid and Baroque assessment process to be able to do anything. It also was not fully true on Symibian, On Palm, and definitely not on Windows Phone.
On Android an app works in a Java-Like VM space known as Dalvik, and rarely can you get to OS/Firmware level code space unless you write Native Code loaded on a Developer-Adjusted version of Android which is usually interpreted as a Jail-broken phone.
Technology in hardware ALWAYS preceeds Software in some degree. (I have seen this reversed only with Microsoft products, but that changed in 2003/2004 when Hardware took the upper hand again.)
As for Flash, that is the technology that has changed so significantly in the last 4-5 years as compared to Processor speed and Hard disk storage advances. So I am not surprised that Architectures that are older then that timeframe appear to be old-fashioned and backward.
But then again, the same could be said about Green Screen Unix/Mainframe apps, But you still need your banking done on that too, today.
-sean
Sean M. Kennedy {Americas Help Desk Application Support}
On any of our devices that have the Windows Mobile 6.X OS, applications install to flash. On our WinCE6 devices, applications install to flash. On WinCE5 and WinCE4.2 devices, applications installed to RAM. On PocketPC 2003 applications installed to RAM. I am not sure about Windows Mobile 5.
On our newer devices, Total Recall allows restoring after a clean boot. It also backs up the RAM disk and clones.