Hi! I am starting grad school in nursing this fall, and my sweet
boyfriend got me a Compaq Aero 8000 as a sub-notebook to use to write
papers. I would also like to purchase a PDA that I can use to
reference medical software when seeing patients. I also have an old PC
at home that runs Windows XP. I am really confused about the
difference between a Windows CE operating system (like the Aero) and a
Pocket PC operating system (which is what much of the medical software
is written in)... I am not very computer savvy! Ideally I would like
to buy a PDA that uses the Pocket PC OS (or Palm OS) and then use the
infrared to quickly sync between my Aero and the PDA... but is that
possible? Is
there a Pocket PC that is compatible with Windows CE so that I don't
have to go through a convoluted sync process between the two or so
that I don't have to go through my home PC? There don't seem to be
many good medical programs written for Windows CE OS, so if I buy a
program for a Pocket PC PDA, will it work on the Aero, too? I don't
have much discretionary income, so I need to choose intelligently, but
I am an idiot about computers... please help!

Hello Joyfulgal!

Microsoft Corp (http://microsoft.com) has published a nice paper on
the differences between Windows CE and Pocket PC.  It can be
downloaded from Microsoft on the following link.

<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=111fe6d5-b0e1-4887-8070-be828e50faa9&DisplayLang=en">http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=111fe6d5-b0e1-4887-8070-be828e50faa9&DisplayLang=en</a>

It does have a lot of technical information; however, the bottom line
is summarized in a table on page 4.  Pocket PC _is Windows CE_ but has
additional applications such as Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Email,
Calender, Contacts, Calculator, etc included with the unit.  Windows
CE is the underlying system, just as Windows XP is the underlying
system at home.  On your home system Microsoft Word runs on top of XP
just as Pocket Word runs on top of your Pocket PC system.

I understand the Aero 8000 has an infrared port.  Any PocketPC PDA
should be able to sync files quickly and easily with the Aero 8000 at
the click of a button.  At the root of it all it would be Windows CE
on your Aero (working behind the scenes) talking to another Windows CE
machine on your PDA (again, behind the scenes).

Hope this answers your question!

jefros-ga <- The New Guy!

In reviewing your submission I noticed I did neglect to address one
issue, that being whether or not a medical program you purchase that
is written for Windows CE will work on both your Aero 8000 and your
PDA.  The answer is it should.  The only concern I would have would be
the screen size on your PDA may be less than that of your Aero.  Any
software you purchase should detail it's specific requirements and you
should be able to match those against the specifications for both your
Aero and PDA.

-whew- Finished I think!