If you put off buying an iPhone because you're waiting for a new Palm Treo running an updated version of Palm OS, you could be waiting a while.

While Palm had planned to release a completely redesigned operating system based on Linux this year, CEO Ed Colligan says the new OS won't be available until "some time next year."

In other words, if you want a Treo running the latest operating system, you're going to want to pick up a Windows Mobile version for now.

Of course, if you aren't so much interested in the new features as the fact that Palm's new OS will be Linux based, there's hope. If you're the tinkering type, you may be interested in knowing that there's been some progress getting Linux to run on Palm hardware. Sure, there are a bunch of features that don't really work yet. But there's always the promise that one day, after 5 or 6 years of tinkering, you could make a Palm LifeDrive more useful than it was when you bought it by installing a faster web browser, better word processor, etc.