Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
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