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October 28, 1999

j.ello | by the byte

The PDA Shootout, Part #2

     The first thing to know about using the Palm is that it really ISN'T a computer.  It's a scaled up version of an electronic organizer... which in the 80's were just scaled up versions of the pocket calculator. :)  The Palm is the next logical step, and while it is flexible enough to do some things you'd expect out a computer, that's just not the focus.  Here's where WindowsCE and PalmOS are night and day different.  Microsoft wanted WindowsCE to bring real computing to palmtops.  PalmOS never had that in mind... they focused on those who are most likely to use a handheld, and that's the professional on the run who needs only to get e-mail on the road, receive updated calendars and tasks while traveling, and have a handy memo pad and address book.  Simple as that.  They want those services, and they want those services to be easy and fast.  That's what PalmOS provides and that's why they're selling almost as well as wood-burning stoves  (fear of Y2k has increased sales of wood-burning stoves 2500% - there should be a law that if someone is too stupid to have money, then it diverts into my checking account automatically).  
     When the first came out, all WindowsCE machines had a keyboard... making them just bulky enough to be unwieldy... and besides, what professional management-type wants to type?  Microsoft also missed that all important "simplicity" rule.  Being a "computer" OS rather than an organizer, WindowsCE doesn't make the functions of getting e-mail, calendar, address book and task information any easier than, say, making a spreadsheet.  90% of a palmtop's use is as an electronic organizer, and WindowsCE just doesn't do a good job of making its built in organizational utilities obvious enough for the average mentally challenged middle-management swine.  This is not to say that WindowsCE's utilities are bad, quite the contrary, they are phenomenal... but as they were intended to mimic normal Office 97 applications, they didn't make an attempt to streamline anything for the user.  What WindowsCE did right, which was make an extremely flexible computer-like OS that fits in a few hundred K of RAM... is fueling the next line of sub-laptops that are coming to market, not to mention game consoles like the Playstation 2.  Think of WindowsCE as Windows flexibility with Linux size, and because of that, in a few years you will see WindowsCE being used in hundreds of ways.  For palmtops, right now, PalmOS had heeded the call and given the yuppies a simple device, obvious in it's function and directed squarely at replacing those cheesy 1980's electronic organizers.
     I'll give you an example... you want your address book?  On the Palm there is a button whose function is solely to bring up the address book.  Want your task list?  There's a button.  Memo? Button. Calendar? Button.  Hell, even the modem has a single button on it which automatically connects you to your computer's modem or ISP and syncs your e-mail, calendar, tasks and memos with your desktop computer.  Under WindowsCE you have to turn it on, use the stylus to go to Start, Connect, dial... blah blah blah... open Outlook... blah blah.  No push-button functionality unless you program it to do that.  It mimics what you would do on your desktop computer... and that's why it is a hassle.  More tomorrow... :)

     -j.ello

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