PalmSource and Access drop more info on their ALP OS

The recent months have been dark days indeed for the Palm OS, especially for its spiritual successor, codenamed Access Linux Platform (ALP). Palm is letting its license to the oft-delayed OS expire this December, and we haven't heard of too many device manufacturers stepping in its place. The good news is that Access-owned PalmSource hasn't been just sitting around a doing nothing, and they recently hosted a one day mini-conference at LinuxWorld to show off their wares so far. Apparently the core OS is fairly completed, and PalmSource is mainly working on the bundled applications that will ship with the OS. Classic Palm OS emulation is said to work perfectly well, even with the requirement by the OS to scale those 320 x 320 native applications to ALP's preferred QVGA touchscreen resolution. There were plenty of Haier N60 flip-phones on hand running the chosen res, along with a few prototypes with VGA screens and a keyboard -- a good sign of things to come. Unfortunately, the only pics allowed were of the developer tools running a virtualized version of ALP in Ubuntu -- a boon to developers, but no device-based eye candy for us. The biggest enhancement so far is multitasking afforded by the Linux base, though sexy features in the NetFront browser, new HotSync interoperability standards, and a newfound return to Palm OS looks of yore seem quite popular as well. In fact, with the OS's ability to be skinned with SVG graphics, Palm could conceivably make a branded version of the OS that would be quite familiar to old users, and dub it the Palm OS 6 we've always wanted. PalmSource says they're still on track to deliver the OS to licensees at the end of the year, with the first ALP products finally emerging next spring.

[Via Brighthand

[delerious @ Aug 22nd 2006 10:50AM]

Is that the Ubuntu logo on the top right-hand corner?

[delerious @ Aug 22nd 2006 10:51AM]

Excuse me. Left-hand corner

[BubbahGeek @ Aug 22nd 2006 10:59AM]

Actually, Palm's license of PalmOS Garnet extends through 2009. What has changed is that they are not required to pay licensing fees to Palm Source after 2006 because they claim PalmSource did not meet certain milestones in the development of the next-gen PalmOS. They don't say which OS they mean, but I assume they are talking about PalmOS Cobalt, which Palm Source admits they haven't worked on for over a year and a half. From 2007 through 2009 Palm gets Garnet for free. Palm is trying to convince PalmSource to extend/enhance their license of PalmOS to allow Palm to continue to develope the OS themselves since Access/PalmSource has no interest in continuing PalmOS. Despite their claims that ALP is the successor to PalmOS, it is a completely new OS which provides emulation for the old OS but will only provide new features for the Linux/Java/MAX part of the OS. From what PalmSource is saying, all PalmOS apps will have to be rewritten to take advantage of the new features. And if the demo Access is showing is any indication, then the emulation will be square (320x320) and not fullscreen (320x480) with the 'silkscreen' area left unused. And the demo phones they are showing are 240x320. So what will my beautiful 320x480 apps look and act like under the new emulation? I afraid to even think about it.

[Slash @ Aug 22nd 2006 11:02AM]

Yes that is the Ubuntu logo.
it looks like they have that os running on top of Ubuntu or maybe its just a screen shot.

[jbullfrog @ Aug 22nd 2006 11:18AM]

About Ubuntu... from the article:

"Unfortunately, the only pics allowed were of the developer tools running a virtualized version of ALP in Ubuntu..."

[Khertan @ Aug 22nd 2006 11:59AM]

320*240 ... Scale 1.5 so ...

Emulated application with text will be illisible if they was created for 320*480 or 320*320 screen ...

It's seems that the target of ALP was Mobile ... not PDA !!!

[Night Train @ Aug 22nd 2006 12:37PM]

Looks like some corrupted data in the address book, or Mr Asbestos has one heckofa commute!

[Butter @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:47AM]

so what are the chances that my new treo 700p can be outfitted with ALP? i'll pay good money to avoid the delay between every action i make on this DinOS.