Thinking about taking the plunge to WM5...

[Kamokazi]

So I've been away from Aximsite a while, but have recently decided my x50v was in need of a hard reset and some software upgrades, and I was thinking about popping in this WM5 CD that has been collecting dust.

Everything I've read so far would consider this insanity. But I'm stubborn and like living on the dangerous side. I'm willing to go to the efforts to try the registry modifications mentioned in the WM5 is here to stay thread, but I would like some more clarifications on what else will be going wrong with WM5.

I've heard leaving the CF card in is a bad idea...can someone clarify on exactly what happens?

Bluetooth issues...what kind of issues are we talking about? I have a TO keyboard and mouse, and I connect through my Motorola phone for internet. How will those like the new OS?

VGA-I like running in full VGA mode, does ozVGA or another program still work well?

Any other issues I should be aware of?

Please try to be non-critical, I know Dell has been neglecting much-needed updates, I don't need to hear about them further. I'd like some serious advice and feedback. I will absolutely be making a backup of 2003SE, and I can live without my Axim for a while. Thanks in advance for any input!

I don't really have much to say other than I would highly recommend that you not upgrade to WM5. To me, it isn't worth the headaches. I would say stick with what you know is stable. At this point, 2003se is more than capable. That's just my two cents.

[Kamokazi]

I know, but again, I like to live dangerously. I installed 2003 on my X5, I run IE7 now, and my 2nd comp runs Vista. I like shiny and new, bugs be damned, as long as I don't lose vital features. With WM5, I really want the graph functionality in Excel, and the other features are nice too. But if I can't use my Bluetooth devices, or the CF card is too glitchy, or I can't stay in VGA mode, then I will hold off. But I can deal with odd CPU speed behavior, or random power consumption.

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way myself. When I first got my WM5 upgrade CD I installed it immediately eventhough I had read all of the horror stories. It was ok for a while but then it just got too buggy for my liking. I'm like you in that I too run IE7 as well as Firefox 2.0 (what I'm using right now) I haven't tried Vista though... I'm definitely one of those who like to keep tweaking and tweaking but then I always end up messing up and having to start over again. That's ok though. I guess it's a hobby of mine. Anyway, I guess your best bet is to just go ahead and do the upgrade. You can always roll back. Since you like trying new things, give it a shot. I don't see where it could hurt anything. Good luck!

[psionandy]

At the moment, it's a bit of a puzzle solving exercise... how long can you have a stable system. 1 day is easy (hence you'll see a lot of wm5 works just great posts)... 1 week is doing well and if you can make it past 1 month then you beat my highscore

[Tak Maze]

What exactly is the benefits of using WM5 anyway? I know of the negatives, but when I used my friends 2003 PPC, it was essentially the same.

[psionandy]

well it is a bit prettier... and i liked the soft buttons... and er um... did i say i liked the soft buttons ?

[Kamokazi]

Persistent storage-Everything is in BIS, so a power loss does not mean a data loss anymore.
Word-Supports Tables
Excel-Supports graphs
Power Point viewer
Direct3D mobile-DirectX mini, kinda.
The soft buttons
Push e-mail on converged devices.
Supposedly better Wifi support, transcriber, and other minor things.
But it's currently got issues on the Axims.

persistent storage and word mobile was enough to bring me over to the wm5 camp.
very disappointed with the BT stack, but i can live with it.
CF cards, activesync issues are all 'solved' at the moment so i m fairly happy

i would reccommend ti if you are bored....

if you have enough time to deal with its problems and install programs that help or edit the registry , then go for it... if you wnat a os with relatively low amount of problems, stick with 2003se

[mitodna]

i would say, if it is ok for you to soft reset once per day, i think it is good move.

do the registry tweak, such as moving the temp files to Storage Card, and the IE temp files too, doing so will speed up the process greatly.

[Patrick Y.]

you guys might want to consider this:
http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=124633