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Microsoft typically has used its ten-year-old Windows CE platform as being a testing ground for source-code code-licensing technique. On November one, the organization took an additional step in this arena by making all of its Windows CE 6.0 kernel readily available beneath a new factor of Microsoft's Shared Supply licensing program. "This is the first and only real-time kernel obtainable in supply form about the Internet," said Microsoft Corporate Vice President Todd Warren, who rolled out Microsoft's plans during a "virtual" Webcast launch of the CE six.0 product. Microsoft has been offering elements of its Windows CE operating system to academic community partners and other developers below Shared Source licensing arrangements for the past five years, Warren said. But Wednesday's announcement of new Shared Supply licensing extensions open up those licensing terms further, officials said. Microsoft released Windows CE 6.0, code-named "Yamazaki," to manufacturing on September 15. The newest release will be the foundation upon which Microsoft builds its next release of the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system, which is code-named "Crossbow."According to Microsoft's CE 6.0 press release, "100 percent of the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 kernel is now offered through the Microsoft Shared Supply program, an overall increase of 56 percent from previous versions of Windows Embedded CE."Where did that extra 44 percent come from? The new wrinkle in Microsoft's Shared Supply licensing terms seems to be something the Redmondians are calling "private Shared Source." CE six.0 licensees will have access to public/sample Shared Source code, which is automatically installed with the Embedded CE toolkit. The private Shared Supply piece is an "optional component" of the Embedded CE Toolkit. In order to gain access to this,Microsoft Office 2010 License, a licensee mus "electronically accept the terms and conditiions of the Embedded CE six.0 Shared Source license agreement" before installing the source code, according to Microsoft's updated CE licensing page. "You may redistribute the Private Shared Source code with your modifications by using the Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Shared Source License Terms,Office Home And Student 2010 Key," according to the new licensing information. Among the newly licensable operating system components: Kernel library, device manager, file system, storage manager, HTTP Web Server and Microsoft message queuing. CE 6.0 supports up to 32k processes, with 2 GB of virtual memory per process, compared to CE 5.0,Office 2010 Home And Business Key, which supported a maximum of 32 processes with 32 MB of virtual memory per process. With CE six.0,Office 2010 Standard Activation, Microsoft also moved operating system processes and subsystems,Microsoft Office Standard 2010 Key, like device-driver manager and file-system manager, into the kernel space. Will including the CE kernel below Shared Source make it alot more attractive to device makers who've been working with (or leaning toward working with) Linux and other a lot more liberally licensed operating systems? Any embedded developers on the market intrigued? Or is Shared Supply still too restrictive for your tastes?