PalmSource Talks About PalmOS 6.0

stevejsmith writes "The Register has released an article regarding PalmSource speaking about their next OS, PalmOS 6.0. The Register says, 'Version 6.0 will be as dramatic a change for the platform as OS X was for Apple, or NT was for Microsoft...', that it will actually include some source code of BeOS, and that will support Microsoft's .NET platform, among other things."

Comments

Swappable...

[Bobulusman]

Version 6.0 will feature granular, application-level security and pluggable I/O interfaces. Which means that licensees can swap out the Graffiti input mechanism for an alternative,

That would be welcome upgrade. I know a lot of people dislike it.

While I like the graffiti on my Visor Deluxe, it would nice if someone could design an interface with all the graffiti symbols that could 'learn' what I mean, the way a speak recognition program does. I have sloppy writing and it's takes me too long to enter in all my assignments.

Palm OS 6 - too little, too late?

[Mr_Silver]

The biggest problem I can see for Palm is that the world and his dog is expecting what OS 6 will deliver today.

By the time they actually get around to delivering it, the goalposts will have changed (by the likes of Symbian and Microsoft) and Palm will have to play catch up again.

On a side note, releasing the Tungstun W (phone one) with OS 4 was a monumentally stupid thing to do. If they're going to commit to OS 5, then they should do immediately - not release two new phones with one running the old OS.

Go to OS 5. Don't look back. Encourage developers to code for OS 5, encourage users who want the power to upgrade. If they're going to release a trickle of OS 4 PDA's then developers will just stick to OS 4.

Oh yes, and the Tungstun slidely thing is silly. I'm going to have to spend my entire time opening and retracting it as I use grafitti a lot - which means it'll break quickly. We need to see sexy and desirable PDA's come onto the market to persuade people to upgrade. This one doesn't (maybe Sony will) ... and for god's sake, even with the low memory requirements of apps, 32 meg is peanuts! Your apps may be smaller than PPC's, but the size of your data is going to be the same.

On a final note, I wonder if OS 6 will actually appear. OS 5 could be make-or-break for Palm. If there is no interest (after all, it doesn't *look* any different and thats what Joe Blow will see) then it'll hurt them very very badly.