We’ve already covered the end of life of Windows CE, but Ars has a short but interesting look back at the history of this undeservedly unloved operating system.
It was a proto-netbook, it was a palmtop, it was a PDA, it was Windows Phone 7 but not Windows Phone 8, and then it was an embedded ghost. It parents never seemed to know what to do with it after it grew up, beyond offer it up for anybody to shape in their own image. And then, earlier this month, with little notice, Windows CE was no more, at least as a supported operating system.
I will never forget Windows CE.
Aside from PDAs, the most interesting use in my opinion was the Sega Dreamcast. It didn’t use windows ce for everything, and depending on the disc, it would use windows ce or not. (of course you can boot linux and netbsd on there too)
48 games used Windows CE, and, yes, it was stored on the game disc rather than the system.
That is out of a total of 690 titles released for the Dreamcast.