Post by @Judeau@mas.to

Recently I picked up a #Psion NetBook Pro.

This thing is a bit of an oddity. Unlike the rest of Psions products, this does not run EPOC OS. Instead, it runs #WindowsCE 4.2, which means it's treading close to #PocketPC territory!

This thing has a much more premium feel than the Windows CE based budget Sylvania #SmartBook that I previously posted about.

It's difficult to find a good curated archive of Win CE 3.0+ programs. Most archives are 1.0 and 2.0 and are not compatible with this device.

I finally found a single archive and its a treasure trove of programs and most of them are compatible with this device.

https://archive.org/details/windows-ce-programs

If anyone else has one of these or any other Windows CE style laptop, please post about it below. I would love to hear about it and see pictures of it.

Let's grow this community!

#WinCE #RetroTech #RetroComputing #PDA #PPC #Laptop

2 media files

A picture of the front of the Psion Netbook Pro.

There is a nice black keyboard and a 7-in display showing a familiar looking Windows desktop. The wallpaper proudly states that it is Windows ce.net. — A picture of the front of the Psion Netbook Pro. There is a nice black keyboard and a 7-in display showing a familiar looking Windows desktop. The wallpaper proudly states that it is Windows ce.net.

A 3/4 view of the Psion Netbook Pro from the left side and front angle.

You can see a few of the ports and how the screen is on a hinge that folds down for portability.

The ports that you can see on the side are a modem, compact flash slot, USB rs232, and a proprietary USB port. — A 3/4 view of the Psion Netbook Pro from the left side and front angle. You can see a few of the ports and how the screen is on a hinge that folds down for portability. The ports that you can see on the side are a modem, compact flash slot, USB rs232, and a proprietary USB port.

Internet Archive

Windows CE Programs : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Windows CE Programs

#smartbook #wince #ppc #windowsce #pocketpc #psion #pda #laptop #retrocomputing #retrotech

3 Replies

0 Boosts

David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 4 hr. ago

@Judeau

I have very mixed feelings about this device. It's a really nice tiny laptop, but it (or, rather, its previous iteration) was really the end of an era.

The original EPOC and Symbian devices were amazing products of hardware-software co-design. The Series 3x ran with an 8086 clone and a combined total of 128 KiB (3) up to 2 MiB (3mx) of combined code and data memory (plus some ROM), which was also persistent storage (disk equivalent). Even with 256 KiB, the 3 didn't feel cramped.

The NetBook Pro had 128 MiB of RAM and a microdrive. The specs were ludicrously advanced in comparison but, aside from the bigger display with more memory, it didn't feel much better.

Except, and this was crucial: it ran a web browser. Even then, a usable web browser was more overhead than the whole of the rest of the application suite.

Judeau (EatTheRich)

@Judeau@mas.to 2 hr. ago

@david_chisnall It was definitely a bittersweet end to the Psion line of products.

The Psion 3 and especially Series 5 were just incredible engineering for the time. EPOC OS was so efficient and the design of the computer had such a premium look.

I'll admit that jumping to WinCE for their final product felt kind of like a betrayal to everything they had built to that point.

I love Windows CE though, so, I am just happy that this tiny Netbook exists.

David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*)

@david_chisnall@infosec.exchange 15 min. ago

@Judeau

The Psion 3 and especially Series 5 were just incredible engineering for the time. EPOC OS was so efficient and the design of the computer had such a premium look.

I was more of a fan of the 3 than the 5. The keyboard on the 5 was nicer but I felt the move to the touchscreen felt a bit of a sideways step: EPOC16 felt really nice with just a keyboard. And the battery life was much worse.

Symbian EKA2 was a beautiful kernel architecture, but didn't make it into any Psion products.

I love Windows CE though, so, I am just happy that this tiny Netbook exists.

I think you might be the first person I've heard say anything positive about Wince (and I liked Windows Phone!). What did you like about it.

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