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The Palm OS Ends With a Whimper

Posted by kdawson on from the hands-down dept.

PetManimal writes "Computerworld reviews the Palm Treo 755p, the last Palm device with the Palm OS, and concludes that the OS is going out not with a bang but with a whimper. The article says there are some useful improvements (better integration with Exchange and IM, limited speech recognition, etc.) but 'nothing that will make you sit back and say "wow."' Palm already has at least one device with Windows Mobile (the 700w) and soon will make a big push to Linux devices, maybe by the end of the year. But the Palm OS, which was top dog for a while back in the 1990s, and is still used by many people who own Palm Pilots or Treos, is going to quickly fade, it seems."

8 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Why Does It Have to Go Out With A Bang? by okmijnuhb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The whole point of palm OS was that it delivered what was needed with simplicity, and no bloat, like it's rival at the time Windows CE.
    A simple to do list, contacts, calendar, a memo pad was the core of the experience, and allthat you needed a PDA to do.

  2. The OS doesn't matter... by rdean400 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Honestly, should anyone really care? If the next-generation Palm operating system is based on a Linux kernel but has the capability of running Palm OS apps in an emulation mode, should we care about what code base it runs on?

    OS's aren't like people or pets. They're tools. When you've outgrown them, you can either upgrade them or find a new one. Obviously Access has no interest in updating the PalmOS, so Palm has to go its own way. I personally hope that they deliver new capabilities on Linux while retaining the simplicity of the Palm interface.

    1. Re:The OS doesn't matter... by updog · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Of course it doesn't matter to the user.

      But it does matter to us geeks, because we care what's under the hood. That's why we're discussing it - so to answer your question, yes, we do care, the OS does matter!

  3. Linux.. by White+Shade · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All I can say is, I hope their linux systems run better than some of the nokia linux-based hardware I've seen, such as the N800 that you can brick by installing software on or looking at wrong.... you can recover them, but only by using linux commandline-only software on a desktop (that was a good waste of an afternoon).

    I love linux, but just running linux doesn't automatically make things perfect. (awesome, sure, but not perfect. this is slashdot afterall).

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    ìì!
  4. Dear Palm: Want to go out with a bang? by merc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Open source PalmOS.

    Seriously.

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    It's true no man is an island, but if you take a bunch of dead guys and tie 'em together, they make a good raft.
  5. Windows Mobile would also have died... by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 5, Insightful
    if it had to make a profit to stay alive like Palm did.

    Windows CE/Windows Mobile was running at a huge loss, but has now broken even. Tactics like that do tend to allow you to destroy traditional competition in the long run. Linux-kerneled devices are growing faster than ever and MS does not have a recipe to destroy them.

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    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  6. I'm one of those users... by WheelDweller · · Score: 3, Insightful

    After 27 years of computing, I got stuck in a town without any serious computer jobs, waiting for Mom to die. So I'm a security guard, and MAN, is that little old 10 YEAR OLD palm 5 a big help. I can take notes without looking, send emails that are legible instead of written reports that aren't, and it's a single sync and the night's paperwork is done and archived.

    It was a good idea; branching out into hundreds of alternatives (and keeping their handwriting recognition sacred) limited the span. And just like SCO learned, charging $1,100 for a development system to create more software for your platform, there are worse things to lose than your money.

    If they could just be talked into licensing their handwriting analysis code to other businesses, they just might save theirs...

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    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  7. PalmOS "died" with the Dragonball by vrmlguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As far as I'm concerned, when Palm dropped Moto's Dragonball processor for the ARM, it was all over. About that same time they got rid of the original Graffiti for something that didn't use one stroke per letter. (Admittedly, this was due to a lawsuit, but the patent was eventually overturned; Palm did not return to Graffiti, however.) There's still a thriving market on eBay for the old Palm devices. I still use my m150, and have a couple of spares that are still shrink-wrapped. The battery life is still incredible. I can take it with me on week-long hikes without any worries.

    Actually, there's a Palm III emulator that's been ported all over the place, including handheld versions of Windows. There's no reason why it couldn't run on a Linux-based PDA. Maybe I should change my subject: "PalmOS will never die!"

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    Nothing for 6-digit uids?