PalmSource in a last attempt to reverse problems of the last year, they are going to focus 100% on Linux-Based PalmOS for SmartPhones instead of focusing on Cobalt.
PalmSource in a last attempt to reverse problems of the last year, they are going to focus 100% on Linux-Based PalmOS for SmartPhones instead of focusing on Cobalt.
PalmSource would have become more successful if it had simply allowed the Be engineers to continue the development of the desktop BeOS, and refocussed Palm OS 5 on the low-end handheld market.
In fact, PalmSource would probably become more profitable if it adopted this strategy now!
My prediction is that if Palm proceeds with its current plan, it will be non-existent in 2-5 years.
Between 1995 and 2000, Be managed to transform what was essentially an alpha release with good foundations into something more responsive, more stable and more intuitive than Windows, the MacOS or Linux with 1/100 the workforce of Microsoft. Just imagine where BeOS could be now.
Stupid Palm!!
While it probably would have been a good idea to press ahead with a Be-style kernel and API early on, and it will take a while to adapt to Linux as a base for the Palm API, I’m happy to see that Palm is biting the bullet and focusing on something to release.
Linux as a kernel will be an excelent base for all sorts of mobile devices using a variety of hardware and processors. Layering the Palm API and a dragonball emulator and possibly a Java runtime on top of it will will allow Palm to offer quite a bit of flexability.
Right now, Microsoft’s PDA apps are often written in Java for portability or recompiled for specific devices…not optimal. (Thus, part of the reason for the whole .Net/CLR strategy.)
Palm could elminate this problem entirely with a good design. That it is based on a flexible and portable hardware interface — in this case Linux — is what makes it practical for non-Palm OEMs such as cell phone companies and convergence devices that include cell phones and other high end features. That, after all, is the main market these days not stand-alone PDAs.
I’m not sure that in the long run that would be as possible using Be’s code base for the kernel.
“Microsoft’s PDA apps are often written in Java”?
I guess you’ve got it wrong…
“”Microsoft’s PDA apps are often written in Java”?
I guess you’ve got it wrong…”
i have MS eMbedded Developer Suit installed and there is VisualC++, VisualVB, and some other stuff.
for compatibility VisualC++ is able to complie for SH3, SH4 & ARM processors.
PocketPC afaik doesnt even have a Java VM Runtime, SmartPhone 2003SE does though but thats due to the fact Java is now found on virtually all Mobile Phones now.
“”Microsoft’s PDA apps are often written in Java”?
I guess you’ve got it wrong…” [i]
[i]PocketPC afaik doesnt even have a Java VM Runtime, SmartPhone 2003SE does though but thats due to the fact Java is now found on virtually all Mobile Phones now.
Thanks for the details.
My earlier comments focused on this; PocketPC is as useless to most folks today as a stand-alone Palm. If you use a PDA, you’re likely using one integrated into your phone. If you want a better PDA, you get a better phone not a second device.
The market for stand alone PDAs is now largely limited to specialists and gadget freaks…who also could just get a better phone.
Case in point: one of the project managers kept bragging about his new phone with MS software on it. Yet, the 3 dozen apps he shows off are all Java based and only 2 of them cost him any money. While he might get a few specific apps for his phone that aren’t Java, the Java apps will out number the native ones for quite some time.
.Net/CLR is Microsoft’s answer to this, though they won’t work on non-MS phones so the app base will be limited as long as Microsoft doesn’t dominate phone operating systems.
Slipped. Did not mean to have the last message all in italics.
May be BEOS become like Amiga:All companies that bought it and not take it seriosly ends up bankrupt.Ít´s the curse
repeat after me: palm shoots itself on the foot…
What genius came up with this one. “I know what will save the company : let’s throw away the product we’ve spent years and millions developping and throw it away in favour of something that’s new, unfinished and (even more) incompatible.”
It’s almost like they want to go bankrupt.
What genius came up with this one. “I know what will save the company : let’s throw away the product we’ve spent years and millions developping and throw it away in favour of something that’s new, unfinished and (even more) incompatible.”
Right now, they have nothing new. Having something is better. I commend them for having a plan.
As for compatability, the base of the OS is not the API layer that the app developers will see. Tune the kernel for the hardware and allow the app developers to code as they wish. Sounds like a good plan to me.
How fast they can pull it off and how stable the whole stack will be is another question. At a minimum, they don’t have to worry about the Linux <Ikernel[/i] too much as it is constantly being tuned by thousands outside of Palm and is amazingly stable.
Palm OS emulators already exist for Linux, so it shouldn’t be an impossible feat or too time consuming. The polish and integration is where they need to spend time on.
For me anyway. I like to keep my PDA separate from my Cell phone for a one (IMHO very important) reason:
The PDA/Cell phone combo is not usually given away by the cell carrier for “free”-that is, you usually spend an extra couple hundred dollars (or more) to get the PDA with the cell phone. This creates an obvious “lock-in” with that particular carrier (or technology-Ex. GSM vs CDMA, etc.).
I’ve gone from Cingular, to Nextel to Sprint (all different technologies) and if I had my PDA tied to the cell phone and switched carriers, guess what I’d have? A PDA!
I’ve gone from Cingular, to Nextel to Sprint (all different technologies) and if I had my PDA tied to the cell phone and switched carriers, guess what I’d have? A PDA!
Not as much of an issue in the days of GSM, sim chips, and eBay. (OK, GSM isn’t practical in all areas yet, though it’s getting there rapidly.)
Personally, I use a very plane-jane phone-only cell phone and no PDA. In a couple years, that may change.
I used to have one of the early Palm Pilots, and gave my sister a simple one this year as a gift. The problem is that most of the time I didn’t use my PDA as a PDA…I used it as a toy.
I can’t see doing that forever, though. A Linux-based phone would be nice if they can shrink them down enough. The bonus of having access to both Palm and Java apps would be nice and I think I can moderate my play instincts in the mean time.
“A Linux-based phone would be nice if they can shrink them down enough. ”
there is in fact talk of Motorolla producing some phones running linux in the future
“A Linux-based phone would be nice if they can shrink them down enough. ”
there is in fact talk of Motorolla producing some phones running linux in the future
I thought that was a done deal; it’s not released but will be. Plus, they seem to be popular enough in China.
‘ve gone from Cingular, to Nextel to Sprint (all different technologies) and if I had my PDA tied to the cell phone and switched carriers, guess what I’d have? A PDA!
Well, iDEN (nextel) is dying so no biggie there. If there were legislation to make US phone dual ot trimode (GSM/CDMA or GSM/CDMA/AMPS) this would not have happened. If CDMA carriers used SIM (R-UIM) cards then going from Cingular, to Sprint, to verizon, to T-Mobile, to Alltell, to SunCom, to whatever (except nextel) would be as easy as switching out your old SIM and putting in your new one.
Carrier lock in generally does not exist with GSM carriers. The phones can be unlocked (if locked at all!) and brought to another carrier. With CDMA you could in theory unlock a phone, but both verizon and sprint have policies of not allowing foreign ESNs on their network (ESN = phone’s serial number)
That’s greed for ya
“pa1mOne release the eleventy-third ” are you sure this is a credible news source.
it maybe a done deal, im not sure, last i heard they were just considering it, but im not a fan of motorolla anyhow so havent really followed it.
After Windows Everywhere, we now have Linux Everywhere.
I have seen that Axxxx at Cebit and played with it for 60 minutes. I found the interface neat, but the applications horrible ugly. There was this routeplanner application for it that crashed half the times …. and it was slooooooooow. Like 10 times more sticky compared to the already very sticky S/E P900.
My experience with Zaurus is also that it is slow.
So it might be possible that we need faster processors first , in order to get Linux really perform on things small with rich UI’s, like phones and pda’s.
i think part of the problem is all Modern Linux UI’s use X11 which IMO requires a significant amount of space, and resources to run.
i do not know if Linux on mobile devices use X11 but if they do removing it or creating a customised cut down version for embedded devices would be a wise move and then port either GTK+ or QT to this X11-Micro to allow you to code a UI for it.
Alternatives to X11 on small devices :
http://maemo.org/
http://www.trolltech.com/products/qtopia/
What genius came up with this one. “I know what will save the company : let’s throw away the product we’ve spent years and millions developping and throw it away in favour of something that’s new, unfinished and (even more) incompatible.”
It’s almost like they want to go bankrupt.
Like the Copland to MacOS jump? yeh that killed Apple…
… then why not release it?
They’re giving up too soon and are too disorganized. They need to stop freaking out and market and improve there stuff rather than use some technologies that aren’t as good simply because it has a brand name of linux.
And now we see the death of PalmSource… g’bye Palm!!
The whole trouble with palm right now is they’re talking too much and delivering too little. The Palm-Be OS mix should be working for them… they’re just not getting it. Frankly, I’d like to see apple snap them up.. Palm was always good at the “one thing well” approach and it would go nicely with Apple’s line-up.
The real market for Palm is the tablet PC market.. nobody does it well and it’s so drastically different in usage you can’t just bolt a touch screen on a WIMP and call it a tablet. Where’s the prototype next gen palm 1cm thick with a 10×7 touch screen? AND full audio & wireless. I’ve always thought Palm’s “smart slateboard” approach has more long term appeal than everybody else’s “workstation in a pocket” approach.. but they themselves just don’t seem to get it.
I bought a Palm 71 to get used to using a PDA. The only reason was due to their aqusition of the BeOS tech force. I have not used it much, as I was awaiting Cobalt, year after year. Now it’s time for a Windows Pocket job. What a waste of time and money. I apologize to myself.
I’m a former BeOS user, a long time Palm user and I sold my trusty old PalmVx last summer because I was hoping that Cobalt devices would come out.
OS 5 is a bloody emulator, something which was supposed to be a transition between the old OS 3 & 4 68k and the new OS 6 ARM and NOT something you bloody pour all your money into to keep it on life support, hacking necessary functionality instead of devoting time to the clean solutions that OS 6 has.
But this is the final drop. As soon as Windows Mobile 2005 devices hits the street, I’m going after one and never buying a Palm product again.
Bloody incompetent management assholes who can’t decide what the hell they want to do!
OS5 is not an emulator. It doesnt emulate anything. It “interprets” the 68k code to arm.. Sounds more like a JIT compile..
anyways, yeah, os5 sucks. os6 was/is going to suck in the multitasking dept from the sounds of it. I hope this works out.
I totally agree. PalmSource needs a new management team. They have the potential to develope a good desktop system and explore tabletPCs, which they talked about in the past.
They’re licensing is too expensive too!
They dont want to do a desktop OS because they don’t want to compete agains tmicrosoft… what crap.. they already are!!!!!! and the smallest erosion in windows share is devestating to microsoft.
Palm is going to jump on the bandwagon and adopt something that 99% of PDA buyers don’t care about–linux.
Truth is they care about functionability and the apps that it can run—now that it has a linux kernel or a linux logo. I’m sure PalmOS is better and faster on PDAs than linux right now mainly because it was built and matured on the devices.
PalmSource = idiots
Right? Am I right or am I right?
This will do two very bad things:
1. Alienate developers further.
2. Alienate users and potential customers, further lowering PalmOS’ installed userbase.
Buzzwords are all that matter to stockholders, directors and whatnot. This ceased to be about good product years ago. Like Be Inc., this company will fail because it is not staying the course and is instead going to do a bad implimentation of the current sexy buzzword.
We can also put a lot of blame on Microsoft for being able to throw their limitless money resources at Pocket Windows, Windows CE or whateverthehell it’s called these days. How can ANY product ever succeed if the biggest competitor can let their product hemmorage money for years and still smile, stomping on all the little insects and come out as a winner? They can money the competition out of every market. They don’t need better product. Just more marketing might and TIME. That’s the most important thing that Microsoft’s money buys them: TIME to get the product “good enough” and TIME to get the name on everything.
I can’t wait for the day that Microsoft “puts the power of Unix” into Windows… Don’t laugh… It will come. If the egotistical self important Apple identity is able to swallow its pride and throw out the core product (the OS) for a pretty looking Unix, why would Microsoft be incapable of doing the same?
“The Power of Unix with the Market Confidence of Windows!”
This industry is actually moving BACKWARDS. Soon everything will be Unix again (Linux “brand” or otherwise). Everyone will have bloated, multi-user, server operating systems in their cell phones (which already crash and freeze and are unresponsive to the user – just like a computer) and PDAs.
Everything will be equally poor and user-abusive.
I bet Tapwave is really pissed…
What a waste of resources. Why do I always choose the better product? You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now. Good product does not succeed. Sexy buzzwords, candy coatings and “good enough” functionality are all that matters.
Now, off to print up my EULA shirts…