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Palm OS Apps on Linux Mobile Phones

Posted by Zonk on from the more-toys-on-the-go dept.

An anonymous reader writes "PalmSource revealed details of its Linux-based mobile phone operating system, Tuesday at 3GSM in Barcelona. Codenamed ALP (Access Linux Platform), the architecture supports Palm OS application binaries, Java apps, and native Linux apps. ALP includes a 68K emulation layer capable of running 'properly written' Palm 68K or 'Garnet' application binaries without modification, PalmSource claims. However, devices based on ALP are not expected until next year -- will it be too late for PalmSource and it's parent company ACCESS to gain a foothold in the mobile phone market?"

2 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. why not years ago? by penguin-collective · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They could have done this 3-5 years ago (using a Linux, BSD, or other POSIX-like kernel).

    One might ask why they didn't do that. Well, for the answer look to the article on Shuttleworth: Palm's engineers had so much more fun designing a new operating system from scratch that the obvious answer eluded them, and because Palm was flying high, they had the money and resources to waste on their hare-brained project of developing their own new operating system.

    Unfortunately, Palm's idiocy probably condemns us all to using PocketPC or Qt/Embedded at some point.

  2. YaY (Yet another Yawn)? by otis+wildflower · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This whole 'Linux phone' thing has, to date, sucked for hobbyists. Motorola? Suck.

    At least SonyEricsson has released free toolchains... For Symbian.

    Where oh where is the phone vendor that will release a smartphone with the ability to load custom-written Linux apps ala .SIS files for Symbian, without a great deal of reverse engineering? Pick a toolset and run with it, preferably something that allows for easy porting from existing OSS apps?

    But of course, normal people don't buy smartphones, cell companies do. So it won't happen. Oh well.