07-01-2005, 11:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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PalmSource Halts Development On Cobalt, Puts Linux On Front Burner
http://palmaddict.typepad.com/palmaddicts/2005/06/palmsource_linu.html
"PalmSource has shifted its engineering efforts to focus on development of Linux-based versions of its Palm OS software for mobile phones. "We are delaying all development of products not directly related to this," said Patrick McVeigh, interim chief executive at PalmSource, during a teleconference to review the past quarter's financial results."
You may recall that PalmOS 6, or Cobalt, was released December 29, 2003 to its licensees to much fanfare and shouts of praise from the user community. Eighteen months later, all we have seen is pa1mOne release the eleventy-third custom iteration of PalmOS 5. During that same time, Microsoft has released and shipped two operating systems, Windows Mobile 2003SE and Windows Mobile 5, with devices running the later expected in the next 60-90 days.
During that time, PalmSource acquired China MobileSoft, a producer of phones with an expertise in Linux. They will focus now exclusively on getting a PalmOS out the door based on Linux. I would like to see how much money PalmSource wasted from 2002 or perhaps as early as 2001 as they started development on Cobalt, including the acquisition of the BeOS engineering team. With devices not expected until sometime in 2006, PalmOS 5 will turn four years old, several lifetimes in the world of mobile computing.
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07-01-2005, 11:46 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 841
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At last... One less vapourware, a few more to go.
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07-01-2005, 11:49 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 481
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Re: PalmSource Halts Development On Cobalt, Puts Linux On Front Burner
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
...They will focus now exclusively on getting a PalmOS out the door based on Linux...
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Will this be a Linux OS running a GUI front end like Kde or Gnome or will they be building their own distro (called Palux :? )? If they'll use some distro of Linux and add their own twist to Kde or Gnome or even if they come out with their own windowing system they might have a chance.
There really aren't many vendors in the Linux mobile world so they might be able to produce something to replace the Palm OS that would be usable with the end user in mind and they would not have screw around with building an OS. I think it would be wrong for them to try and come up with their own distro (such as Suse, RedHat, Debian etc.). They should rather use a running distro and supply their own twist to it
I haven't seen anything that would make me switch away from a PPC since the apps and community are great but I would hack around with one if not too expensive.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
...I would like to see how much money PalmSource wasted from 2002 or perhaps as early as 2001 as they started development on Cobalt, including the acquisition of the BeOS engineering team...
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If it worked then we would have said that look at all the money they spent but they were able to pull it off in the end (MS spends huge piles of cash each year on their R&D). Anyway sooner or later the reason why they're canning Cobalt will surface but for my 2 cents they must have blown it with a poor design. When they came out with the betas something was probably not working correctly which might have caused fears about a big rewrite for portions or even all of it. Or that Cobalt was already behind the times and outdated. But what ever the reason is it seems to smell like the same foul oder as the Denver International Aiport baggage system smelled like when the canned that project.
Maybe they'll start selling pencil and paper in a Rinoskin leather case and call it the Pad OS 8)
Jeff-
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07-01-2005, 11:56 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 841
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Re: PalmSource Halts Development On Cobalt, Puts Linux On Front Burner
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Originally Posted by lapchinj
There really aren't many vendors in the Linux mobile world so they might be able to produce something to replace the Palm OS that would be usable with the end user in mind and they would not have screw around with building an OS. I think it would be wrong for them to try and come up with their own distro (such as Suse, RedHat, Debian etc.). They should rather use a running distro and supply their own twist to it
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PalmSource bought a Chinese company last year, which already has Linux for mobile devices. CMS is already producing Linux for mobile devices in the Chinese market for some time.
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07-02-2005, 12:51 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2
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Linux? oh yeah!
Finnaly a good mobile operating system 8). Yeah I have a ipaq 2210, and I cant help think about firefox on it...
I was looking into buying a Sharp Zaurus but its too expensive to have imported and converted to english.
If palm pull this off, set up a ported repository and make it debian based for 1 click updates... then we have a winner.
lol I played with a mates Zaurus CL3100, (640x480, 4gb HDD, 128 rom... and some other specifications I cant remember off the top of my head  ) and a got Apache 2 working on it and hosting my mini website. although impractical its impressive :devilboy:
Now palm can lower the cost of linux based PDAs and we can enjoy some nice software (ported open office, GIMP, firefox/thunderbird) on the move
Final Word. I love windows mobile on my ipaq... i love it to bits, but i cant help but think linux could do more :wink:
Linking Time
(New Linux distro on Zauri, pdaXrom)
http://www.pdaxrom.org/screenshots.php?menuid=2
(KDE 3.4 running on Zaurus 750 - 640x480)
http://www.staerkel.org/pdaxrom/
Enjoy
:wink:
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07-02-2005, 01:13 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,887
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Re: PalmSource Halts Development On Cobalt, Puts Linux On Front Burner
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Originally Posted by lapchinj
Will this be a Linux OS running a GUI front end like Kde or Gnome or will they be building their own distro (called Palux :? )?
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Best guess, based on their track record, is they'll run a Dragonball/Palm 4.x emulator on top of the Linux Kernel and file system.
Same old gui, same old apis.
Otherwise, they can't brag about having ten million applications pre-coded for the platform.
Do remember who we're talking about; the "Zen of Palm" guys...
The least they can do is the *most* they will do... :roll:
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07-02-2005, 01:22 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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They are building a mobile phone OS guys. That means no access at all to the underlying OS. NO Apt get, NO CLI, NO installing your own software at all (without permission that is).
In the end its all a bit pointless. Why would a phone company not just license Symbian or WM. What's the POS USP?
Surur
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07-02-2005, 01:26 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 2
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Sorry for the going over the top, i was excited :lol:
oh well...
back to getting someone to port linux to the Dell X50v :devilboy:
My linux + palm dream was just popped... back to reality :cry:
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07-02-2005, 02:33 AM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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they are doing multiple things. Part of it is a feature phone. That is where the phone is 100% closed to the user. you use their UI and the carrier apps. Nothing gets installed.
the other is to put the Palm UI and API on Linux. I am sure someone will figure out a way to shell out in a limited fashion, but byband large, it will be a Palm OS device, just on a Linux kernel. Just like there is very little you can do on a PPC to access the CE UI and other APIs that aren't exposed, you won't be able to do it on a Linux powered Palm.
Five years ago I said Palm would have a HUGE problem turning the Palm API on the Kadak kernel into a real 32 bit multitasking OS.
Now, they still haven't done it and the whole OS5/OS6 fiasco was a false start. So, they start over with a real OS.
They had to use an established OS and buy a company that already knew how to use that OS to get started. It would be funny if it weren't so sad.
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07-02-2005, 04:10 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 794
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...will they finish it before Windows Mobile takes over the PDA market?
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