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Palm OS To Run On Linux
mwk88 writes "PalmSource today announced it is acquiring China Mobile Soft, a leading Chinese mobile phone software company, and will offer future versions of Palm OS Cobalt running on Linux. Full disclosure: I am a PalmSource employee -- but also a Slashdot reader, and would like to get some feedback. You can find more detail in this letter to the Linux community." NewsForge (also part of OSTG) has a textified (non-PDF), linked version of the letter.
I think it's a nice idea.. Get the best of both worlds.. Look at the Macintosh.. they got tons of software added to their platform by adopting BSD as their OS.
If I read this properly - what Palmsource actually plans is a symbiosis between Linux and Palm-OS - while keeping Palm-OS proprietary and closed-source software.
It shows a few similarities with Mac-OS X imho - you can run Linux-software AND Palm software on the same platform.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Sharp's Zaurus PDA already runs Linux, yet is doing enormously poorly in the USA (not sure how successful it is; suspect in Japan it's doing better). If anyone can bring Linux to the palm of your hand, PalmSource can.
Sharp: it's not too late for you. Maybe an interoperability agreement with PalmSource would help?
So, forgive my lack of Linux knowledge but, will Palm OS on linux be like KDE or Gnome on linux in the sense that it's a GUI that sits on linux? I'm just trying to understand how this will work and why it's a good idea.
The new OS5 already has emulation capabilities for the Motorola processors of the older palms. I wonder if the linux will run an OS5 emulator that will emulate the motorola CPUs...
Can they do all this without linking or modifying the underlying kernel Linux? I assume that they have carefully considered the implications of the GPL. This project sounds cool, but I think I would have chosen something like NetBSD & its less restrictive BSD license.
Think global, act loco
A few reasons:
- A large base of existing handheld apps
- A well-designed UI for mobile devices
- A familiar brand for consumers
- Longer-term, may make for easier porting of Palm OS to new devices
EricView your HTTP headers here
Q. Will I be able to upgrade my current Palm Powered . device to Palm OS for Linux? A. We'll know if this is possible once the Palm OS for Linux software development is finished. In general, licensees are reluctant to offer operating system upgrades on any mobile platform because they don't sell well --the people most interested in upgrading their OS also tend to upgrade their hardware as well. So... maybe
Actually, I wrote it in HTML but somewhere in the post-to-the-corporate-website process it popped out in pdf; hmmm, the mysteries of corporate IT :) However glad that we got the text version linked back in here.
mwk
Perhaps this will help in extending hardware support for Palm. Wouldn't it be technically possible to run it as an OS on a small laptop? Like Microsoft's use of .net mobile, the Palm OS could run on anything from a watch to something like the NetBook from Psion. This is a great move, and I'd love to see if I could get it running as a VM on my PowerBook.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
As a developer of both PalmOS (5.x) and Linux apps (and Windows apps, too), here's how my work can best be delivered to users of this system:
- GNU toolchain that compiles single projects of source files for the Palm/Linux distro OR straight Linux
- Gtk/Qt2Protein API map, as a gcc preprocessor for initial porting
- A tiny Palm/Linux object DB, so GUI/logic/data components can be remixed into new apps with a minimum of API glue (or scripts)
This is a really exciting development. If IBM had included DOS as a mode in S/390 mainframes in 1980, the available programmers and programs would have multiplied. We'd not only have gotten years ahead, but the rate of growth would have been accelerated. The PC would have replaced the mainframe for most apps, except massive batches and other processing suited to a climate-controlled office. I can't wait for PCs to become an artifact solely of the geek office, with "phones" the standard infotool for everyone else, all integrated over the wireless Internet. Thanks again, Palm!
--
make install -not war
The USPTO lists Croce as trademark owner. The USPTO should have updated their records to reflect the correct ownership.
Hmmm...
;) ).
If I recall correctly, PalmSource bought the BeOS sourcecode after it had failed in the marketplace.
Everyone expected PalmSource to use the BeOS code as a basis to built another mobile OS on.
Now that PalmSource has announced that they would be running future versions of PalmOS on top of Linux, that previous plan has apparently been axed.
Well, in that case I do have a great proposal for PalmSource if they if they are prepared to give something back to the Open Source community: by releasing the BeOS sourcecode under the GPL or any another acceptable OSI-compliant license.
I'll tell you this, mwk88: if PalmSource were to release the BeOS sourcecode, they would create a tremendous amount of goodwill throughout the entire OSS/FS community, even among many of us that do't use BeOS. And with that, you'd be attracting many talented volunteers who are prepared to help customize and optimize Linux for PalmOS. I can't think of any other use that PalmSource would have for BeOS, now that they're switching to a Linux-based platform.
Please do this, PalmSource. If you do, I'm sure you'll become the next cool open-source friendly company idolized on Slashdot (sorry, Novell
"Oooh, does that mean we get to kick some puffy white mad zionist butt?"
My wife has a Nintendo DS, and I was flipping through the specs on it the other day. Its is AMAZING!!!! for $150 she got a piece of hardware with 2 screens, 1 of which is a touch screen, 2 ARM CPUs (a 7 and a 9, IIRC), and 802.11 wireless. Sure it is great for games, but that thing could also double as a PDA, given the right software package. So, would there be any way Palm could sell a DS "game" cartridge with, say, PalmOS, a couple apps, and a few MBs of storage? No need for a USB connection, as the wireless could transfer data to/from a PC. And the hardware is there already, and should probably be compatible (I assume some PDAs use ARM cpus?)... so please, do this! My wife has always been interested in PDAs, but they are too expensive as a stand-alone for what they do (at least to us). Imagine reaching out to a bunch of people that will have the Nintendo DS over the next few years... :)
William George
Well, Novell hasn't exactly given us any great reason to upgrade. I still have a bunch of Netware 4.11 servers which we plan to replace this coming year with Samba running on a single IBM eServer. Nothing wrong with the Netware 4.11 servers -- they do a great job, but the hardware is showing it's age. It gets harder to run old software on new hardware, so it's time to move on.
We'd consider continuing with Netware (migration would be a breeze), but the licensing is not attractive. We used to buy a few hundred perpetual client licenses per server. Now Novell wants the same sort of money for licenses that require yearly renewal.
We're a university research institute with about 350 employees. Yearly license fees eat up more money than we're willing to devote to them. With Samba 4 on the horizon, it just doesn't make any sense for us. Novell tried to get on the "yearly renewal" bandwagon, so we're migrating away from them entirely to nothing but OSS.
Life is short: void the warranty.
I bet the Nintendo DS is sold at a loss, and Nintendo makes the profits from games. Thus, they'd probably deny the license to product such an application, because people would buy DS's just to be PDA's and not for games, costing them money.
Either that or they'd sell the PDA cart at an outrageous price to make up the loss.
-Z
Bruce
Bruce Perens.