Palm OS 5, RIP. Access Linux Platform (ALP), hello beautiful!

Palm fans, steel yourselves. We have some news for you this morning. Today at 3GSM Access, the Japanese company who bought PalmSource last year, announced the (kinda) unexpected: the next version of the Palm OS. We know, crazy, right? PalmSource dragged Palm OS 5 (Garnet) kicking and screaming to its death, but what do we have to show for our years of patience waiting for Palm OS 6 (Cobalt)? Well, first of all, don't call it that at all -- Palm OS 6 / Garnet is gone -- Access is rebranding their OS (and yes, it is now their OS to rebrand) and went "Access Linux Platform," a very sober name for um, the Access platform that runs Linux (kernel 2.6.12 or above, to be exact). And when we say rebranding, we really mean it; though it will run classic Palm OS 5 applications, apps written for Access's new application framework, MAX, and even Linux apps written for the Gnome frontend, the ALP user interface is said to bear precisely no resemblance to the Palm OS of yore. Sounds like all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for the best when Palm OS 6 ALP starts showing up in devices set to be launched in 2007.

[Via Phonescoop]

[Ian Jardine @ Feb 14th 2006 9:03AM]

Are these people clueless?
What a waste of a great brand name.

[PodMonkeys @ Feb 14th 2006 9:05AM]

Sounds cool. I wish I could try it out. I'm happy with my "old" treo 650, what with the best Palm OS game ever made! "Aldon's Grossing"

[zoara @ Feb 14th 2006 9:08AM]

Oh, crap.

[PEZ @ Feb 14th 2006 9:32AM]

I guess this is the beginning of the end.

[jeremiah @ Feb 14th 2006 9:33AM]

qoute: "it will run classic Palm OS 5 applications, apps written for Access's new application framework, MAX, and even Linux apps written for the Gnome frontend"

oh my god w00t!!! :D

[supersocialist @ Feb 14th 2006 10:32AM]

I can't wait for Nethack on a Treo. The 700W must run CE Nethack, but I'm not willing to give up my Palm apps! I hope this ALP runs older (pre POS5) apps, too...

[Joshua Ochs @ Feb 14th 2006 12:04PM]

While this transition freaks me out, too, let's not let things get out of hand here.

They specifically said they're leveraging all of the PalmSource apps because of their "recognized ease of use". They are replacing the web browser (fine by me), although I wish they'd create a WebCore-based one like Nokia did - that thing looks sweet.


"A number of ACCESS and PalmSource technologies have been incorporated into ALP, including:

PalmSource mobile applications including PIMs, multimedia, messaging, PalmSource HotSync and Palm Desktop -includes the recognized ease-of-use that users expect
PalmSource messaging and telephony middleware - a highly modular and scalable implementation
ACCESS NetFront browser - a proven success with over 200 million deployments in 721 commercial products for more than 30 handset and 90 Internet device manufacturers worldwide"

[Richard Krehbiel @ Feb 14th 2006 1:32PM]

Um - the Palm TX has Wifi.

From reading the press release, it looks like devices are more than a year away. :-(

[Jason @ Feb 14th 2006 3:23PM]

I'll get all happy next year,when palm finds a way to side with the carriers and screw us(the consumer) on the release of their next great phone.

[G. Bates @ Feb 14th 2006 3:49PM]

Who cares? Windows Mobile is the future anyway.

[dan @ Feb 14th 2006 4:16PM]

I, for one, will not mourn the death of PalmOs in its current form. It's clear that the folks at Palm no longer give half a crap about improving PalmOs and keeping it cutting edge. Someone had to do something. Mobile Linux is as good a place to start over from as any, and I enjoy seeing Treo being the next battle ground of Windows vs. Linux, in the form of Windows Mobile vs. Access-branded-linux-Palm-Os-thingy. Intesting to see what happens to Symbian over the next couple of years, in reaction to this.

As far as this mysterious "Access" company goes, I assume they are not complete dumbasses, and I imagine that some of the Palm-branding will be held over to help acceptance of the Access Linux Platform, as soon as it is ready to be market tested. (As long as they are contractually allowed to do so.) I mean, if they are dumping the Garnet codebase to rewrite the OS based on Embedded Linux, and if you are dumping the Palm branding, what's the point of buying out PalmSource in the first place?

[Joel @ Feb 14th 2006 5:08PM]

Finally!!! Linux is taking the world by storm and this is just another example of it. Down with Micro$oft!!!

[Scott Ackman @ Feb 14th 2006 7:38PM]

The Palm OS is pretty stable. It would interesting to see if this is more stable. It could possibly allow for greater flexibility

[Steven Grimm @ Feb 14th 2006 9:48PM]

"The Palm OS is pretty stable." Are you crazy? The Palm OS is a bugridden long-past-obsolete pile of horse manure as far as I'm concerned. Every Palm device I've owned over the years has crashed constantly, even when I haven't installed software like background music-playing apps (which wouldn't have to play dirty tricks if the stupid OS supported multitasking in the first place.)

What's more, when any third-party app crashes, it takes the whole device with it -- there's no notion of a single process dying but the system as a whole recovering. In the middle of a phone call on your Treo while you're running that buggy notepad program? Kiss your phone conversation goodbye.

I like the UI better than Windows Mobile, but stable? Not even close. A Palm-compatible device with a modern OS underneath it can't come soon enough for me.

[clicclic @ Feb 15th 2006 12:22AM]

After spending a week in Orlando, where I saw hundreds of men and women (mostly women) pulling out their beloved 650's, Palm OS 5 must have something right in it. Windows Mobile just doesn't have that ease of use and gender-neutral addiction that Garnet has.


Access I hope realizes this and leverages it!

[Robert Erickson @ Feb 20th 2006 12:44AM]

And perhaps will mozilla/google/plaxo jump into providing some tight integration with their products on a new palm platform?

[Wim @ Feb 20th 2006 5:24PM]

I for one am happy to see a big time company from the mobile market push linux to the worlds mobile market (Sharp doesn't count, they only sell japanese stuff). I was going to buy a Palm TX after having sold my old Toshiba E400, but after reading this I've decided to wait. I was going to switch to PalmOS because of their great open source and free development tools, but a fully capable linux sounds so much better. I'm a student and don't have the money to upgrade every year. Too bad I'll miss out on the mobile stuff for at least while though. Does Access still employ the Palm developers that brought us Palm OS? If so, I am really looking forward to what these experienced people can make of our beloved linux on the mobile platform. This is what many of us have been waiting for for years. Windows may be the future to some (most?) short sighted users, but I believe that choice is never a bad thing. I'm interested in how these devices will do in 2007, and how the user community will react, as well as Microsoft and Symbian.

[College Student @ Feb 25th 2006 9:38AM]

After spending a week in Orlando, where I saw hundreds of men and women (mostly women) pulling out their beloved 650's, Palm OS 5 must have something right in it. Windows Mobile just doesn't have that ease of use and gender-neutral addiction that Garnet has.

[Pierig Le Saux @ Apr 18th 2006 5:38PM]

2007 is too far away - I can't wait that long to get linux running on my palms. Alternate projects of porting linux to palm platforms are doing good and are nearly in beta stages (Familiar OS is almost running on many models of Palms).
If ACCESS Linux is too slow to be released, it seems to me many users will be turning towards these projects... and they won't be using ACCESS.

[Thalass @ Sep 2nd 2006 5:31PM]

I hope that this OS will be able to be installed on older palm devices. I just bought a Palm TX, and I've been searching for a linux OS to fiddle with.