Can PDAs or PocketPCs run regular windows programs?

September 5, 2005 1:08 PM

Can Pocket PCs or Palm Pilots run regular programs written for windows?

This question actually comes from my Dad. At his job, there are times where he has to transfer a program he wrote from his computer for an industrial machine, onto the machine or run the machine with the software. He says he ususally has to wheel his office PC down to where the machines are, connect it to the machines, and then use his PC to run the software onto the machines. He also has a laptop to do it with, but those are pretty big too.

My dad saw my iPod and asked if there was something small like an iPod, but would let him load his windows programs onto there, and control the transfer to the machines through the ipod-like gadget. I'm fairly certain the iPod has no such feature (heck, it's a pain just to get music off the ipod!) but suggested a PDA or a pocket PC.

Dad wants something in the $500 or below range, so is there a PDA or pocket PC which can do something like that? While the industrial machines have USB ports, a USB flash drive won't work, because the machine he's using doesn't have any sort of keyboard terminal that would give him control of the USB drive.

posted by nakedsushi to technology (10 comments total)

Well, that depends on how he currently transfers the software, and how he controls the industrial machines via the PC. Assuming that he needs some piece of proprietary software to do so, you'd need a special PDA version, which may or may not exist.

If it's something that will run on Linux, you can run just about any Linux/Unix binary on certain handhelds like the Sharp Zaurus, so that might do the trick.

We really need more info, there's too many unknowns--what OS is on his PC, what OS or firmware is on the machines, what other connections are available on the machines (and which one is used with the PC?), and like I said, how does he effect the transfer of this software now?
posted by cyrusdogstar at 1:23 PM on September 5, 2005

Pocket PCs can't run desktop Windows apps AFAIK. There are miniture PCs with a similar form, eg the Oqo, but they're more like $2000 not $500. Maybe a small laptop would work? Fujitsu and Sony (and before them IBM and Toshiba) have made pretty tiny laptops for a while, so you could find something used.
posted by Utilitaritron at 1:27 PM on September 5, 2005

It doesn't sound like he does need to run Windows programs on the PDA to do what he needs, since there's probably an equivalent Palm or Pocket PC program that can do the transferring and control.

As cyrusdogstar said, I don't think this question can be answered beyond that without some detail on what he actually needs to do to get software onto the industrial machine.
posted by cillit bang at 1:31 PM on September 5, 2005

Sorry about the lack of details. From what I understand, Dad wrote a little tool that will download something from his PC to the machine and that tool runs on any version of Windows, from what I've been told. What he wants is some sort of PDA or PocketPC that will run that tool.
posted by nakedsushi at 1:57 PM on September 5, 2005

What language is the tool written in?

.NET languages (VB.net, C#, that Microsoft Java-alike) can be made to run on windows-compatable palms, from what I've gathered.

Java is all the time being touted as being cross platform. Perhaps it actually could be in this case, if you grabbed the right PDA again.

If it's in just about any other modern language, it can in theory be made to run on Linux, provided that you have the source (and you do, since your Dad wrote it) and it doesn't have any strange windows-only dependencies.

Is there any way that one can 'watch' a thread on MeFi and get email when it updates?
posted by Rictic at 4:36 PM on September 5, 2005

Is there any way that one can 'watch' a thread on MeFi and get email when it updates?

Right now, the best you can do is bookmark it, I'm afraid. I do that sometimes, though, to check up on a thread a day or two later.

Back to the problem at hand, Rictic is right, if it's a Windows-only application, it can most likely be cross-compiled for WindowsCE (I think...whatever's on PocketPC PDAs). Anything else can probably be shoehorned to run on a Zaurus or an iPaq or whatnot, running Linux.

The specifics depend once again on specific details, e.g. what exact language it's written in, and how well that language is supported on various PDAs.

So in short, this is not an easy "Yes, you can run normal as-is Windows applications on XYZ PDA brands" answer, but rather "If it's really that important that he run it on a PDA instead of a 12-inch laptop, it will probably be possible but may take some fiddling around".
posted by cyrusdogstar at 6:07 PM on September 5, 2005

Terminal Services and/or VNC
posted by blue_beetle at 12:33 AM on September 6, 2005

About the smallest, cheapest thing that can run Windows is a secondhand Toshiba Libretto, which is a full featured laptop about the size of a video cassette.
posted by cillit bang at 4:50 AM on September 6, 2005

Terminal Services and/or VNC -

Windows mobile 2003 SE comes with Terminal services and you can get VNC for it aswell.

Windows mobile 5.0 (2005) might have more features.
posted by spooksie at 4:50 AM on September 6, 2005

Yea, if it's VNC, you can get a VNC client for the Zaurus/iPaq as well (I believe it's native, too, e.g. you wouldn't need to use the Linux version of the OS).
posted by cyrusdogstar at 5:06 AM on September 6, 2005