The IBM WorkPad z50 was a sub-notebook (or was it a palm-top?) to beat all sub-notebooks back when sub-notebooks were all the rage. It features a comfortable full qwerty keyboard, a TrackPoint mouse, a small but comfortable 640x480 256 color screen, PCMCIA port, built-in modem, weighs three pounds, contains no moving parts, generates no heat, runs Windows CE, comes with Microsoft Pocket Office (Pocket-Word, -Excel, -PowerPoint, and -Outlook) and Pocket Internet Explorer installed on ROM, uses Compact Flash memory for storage, and lasts up to ten hours on a single charge of its rechargable battery, or even a bunch of AA batteries. Back in 1999 the z50 cost about $1000, which maybe is why they weren't incredibly popular-- that is, until IBM discontinued them and the price dropped to $250.

From Byte Magazine's February 2000 article:

I have come close to tears over a computer twice in my life. The first time was the joy I felt when realizing IBM's sub-three-pound WinCE-based WorkPad Z50 was my dream machine I had been seeking for years. The second time was from frustration when, just six months after I popped $800 for one, IBM discontinued the line and prices dropped 60%-75%.

For a brief period in late 1999/early 2000 there was a buying frenzy, and then they were gone. If you want one, they still surface regularly on eBay from $100-$250. When I heard about the z50 last year, I plunked down about as much to an eBay seller for the sole purpose of playing and composing interactive fiction on the road when I didn't want to risk lugging my 8-pound primary laptop. (See FrotzCE, a z-code player for WinCE.) I adore the thing, but it's a handful. Being an unsupported product, it's difficult to sync with Windows NT/2000/XP without some fiddling. I also couldn't properly upgrade its WinCE 2.11 to a more stable version, nor could I get it to run a bunch of WinCE software (which needed these WinCE MFC DLLs, though they still didn't work). I was able to get it to run a Java Runtime Environment for WinCE, which meant I could at least hack up my own Java apps, and the PocketOffice apps were fabulous for on-the-road office tasks. I especially love the way Outlook reminders will cause the z50 to beep and flash a light even when the unit is turned off and closed.

It is possible, and, if you're the type to try it, even desireable, to install NetBSD on the IBM WorkPad z50. (See also NetBSD's hpcmips page.) Frustrated with trying to get WinCE to do what I want, I seriously considered this, though was hesitant to give up PocketOffice. The required extra hardware (a PCMCIA network card) stalled me on the idea, but as the z50 has sat unused on my desk for many months, I'm still interested. You can even buy hundreds of dollars worth of battery-sucking peripherals like PCMCIA hard drives and such and beef up your BSD install. Linux is also quite doable, but I lost the link to a page about it; Linux MIPS would probably be a good place to start. I like the BSD instructions because they assume minimal extra hardware.

PocketPC City's z50 message boards, while not terribly active, have some good info. Others have had far more luck than I had doing neat things with WinCE. This IBM WorkPad z50 internals page might also be useful.

While I was playing with it, I found a bunch of great free-to-download Microsoft tools for the thing. MS even had a complete developer's kit for embedded/handheld WinCE available free to download at one point, which included the full Visual Studio IDE and everything. I don't know how relevant these are, but they were destined for the bookmark dumping ground, so I thought I'd mention them: Microsoft Windowns Handheld PC Plus Pack download; Microsoft PowerToys for Windows CE.

PocketC, an inexpensive WinCE development language/package. Pocket Scheme, an on-device Scheme programming language/environment. WinCE development tools. WinCE development FAQ. WinCE development Yahoo Group. You can tell this started as a bookmark dumping ground and grew into a full post. :)