After a busy week, teaching a Windows CE 5.0 class, I can only say that some developers are privileged. Honestly, how many people are working on Operating System designs? Of course, when you are working for companies like Microsoft and if you are working in a team that is developing Windows Vista or Windows CE this might be your day to day work. However, most software developers will work on applications. What about getting the best of both worlds? That is exactly what you will get if you are working with Windows CE and if you are specializing on OS designs. Surely, you will not design an operating system from scratch if you are working in this area. However, you have the possibility to create a specific flavor of Windows CE, utilizing all of your target hardware in the best possible way. This means you will use components and modules that are shipped with the Windows CE development tools (Platform Builder), and maybe device drivers or even a Board Support Package that you developed yourself. In other words, it is your responsibility to get the operating system up and running on target hardware. Working in this area means that you not only have to know about programming languages like C or C++, but you also need to understand the hardware on which your OS will be running and of course you have to know about the Windows CE Operating System. I am pretty sure that this kind of work is not something that everybody likes, but if you like to work in the area where hardware and software meet each other, this might be your world. Since last week, hopefully a few more developers have learned enough about the Windows CE operating system to get excited about it. Hopefully they find there way in creating great Windows CE based OS Designs for  their customers. Taking a Windows CE class is only the first step. A life of continuous learning, trying, sometimes maybe even cursing lies ahead of them. But hey, working in the embedded space, especially on OS Designs is their reward. Welcome new Platform Builders.