Whats the diff?

Hi all,
I know I keep posting (possibly retarded) questions here, but I normally get quick
and onto it answers from you guys.
Question is,
Whats the difference between Windows CE/CX and other versions of windows.
Reason being, my son is looking for a laptop for school, and we have been looking
at the mini netbooks (portability etc..) and they all seem to be running Windows CE or CX?
Will this matter?
His school computers are macs (but he wants to stick to windows) will this cause a problem as
far as file transfer goes? Just basic wp sort of homework stuff.
Are we even going down the right track?
Cheers in advance.

CE is an imbeded operating system for small/low power devices, otherwise known as thin clients. Basically just enough operating system to run the basics (networking, webrowser) and not much else.

Theres less to go wrong with thin clients and some reset themselves every time they are rebooted which means less risk of viruses etc.

If hes just using webpages or terminal server (unlikely but thats what they are usually used for) then CE might be a go but generally theyre on very very light appliances, havent seem them on laptops. Otherwise I would go with Win7 basic and keep a reinstall disk handy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_CE