Notice how we don't talk
much about Palm apps around here? I used to be the biggest Palm fan out there. That was before the dark days of lousy
hardware, bloated OS updates, and bugs from here to the 10th planet. Riddle me how Sony was able to get Flash on their
PalmOS devices years ago, but Palm's own still don't have it? Explain why the OS has to be stuck at 5.x.x.x.x ad
infinitum? Oh well, they lost me about a year ago (that LifeDrive is too little, too late, and
it doesn't even work properly), but I still am intrigued by this latest development... PalmSource and Access are teaming up to create a Mobile
Linux Ecosystem. Actually it's called the Access Linux Platform. Essentially it's the move to Linux PalmSource has been
talking about for a while, only now we're beginning to see what shape it will take. Cutting through the marketing
jabber, I see several open source items are making it into this new platform, including GTK and GStreamer. It also
appears the existing PalmSource PIM apps will make the cross over. SQLite will get into the mix, but Palm's browser may
take a back seat to the ACCESS NetFront browser. I'm a little worried about that one, since Palm's browser worked pretty
well. Interesting times, but we shall see if this is the herald of a new age in Palm's OS, or the last nail in the
coffin. [Via MyTreo]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-21-2006 @ 2:40PM
mjb said...
It looks like the whole project is much more Linux than Palm OS -- the Palm OS is just going to be an emulation layer that allows you to run legacy apps, which is great for fans of brilliant homegrown Palm apps like WWcalc (yes you can still find itand Wordsmith.
Those kind of apps probably won't be created for some of the so-called linux mobile devices out there, because in one way or another the software/hardware combo is too closed. Hopefully this new linux/palm set up will really be open so a good grassroots network of developers can start creating their own software and realizing the potential of today's more powerful pieces of hardware and communication services. There must be some incredibly cool convergence of GSM/Wifi + Linux that no corporation would ever think of.
Reply