"If there had been a really compelling reason to use WinCE, we probably would have done it. It would have had to be *really* compelling, though - we didn't use linux specifically to make it easy to hack on, it was just the best OS for the job.

Bear in mind that the Rio/Dell box we did for them runs Linux, and we have a lot of knowledge on the embedded linux front. It'd be a shame for that to go to waste in future products, wouldn't it? :)"

*sigh*

Please don't be offended, but that sounds an awful lot like waffling to me, which probably means something along the lines of "We'd like to keep using Linux on our products because that's where *our* expertise is, but since it's now S3, if they decide to dictate to us how we build the products, we go along with it."

And don't forget that a great big "compelling reason" to go totally closed, purely MS in so many companies, even technical ones, is "because management said so because some MS guy took them all out to a really expensive lunch and told them how happy it would make them if they dictated that the entire company runs MS products."

I at least hope that S3 realizes that a "compelling reason" at least some of us bought Empegs is because of its openness and hackability.