Newsmaker: Can Linux save the Palm OS?

Access is betting that the Palm community could use a little push from a penguin.

More than two years have passed since PalmSource--the Palm OS developer purchased by Access in 2005--released an update to the venerable operating system. But the next version, which is set for release next year, will be very different under the hood, according to Access executives Tomihisa Kamada and Didier Diaz.

The Access Linux Platform will still be able to run Palm OS applications, but Tokyo-based Access will use an open-source underpinning as its foundation. The mobile software maker asserts that this will make it easier and cheaper to get the update out to developers, who will likewise find it easier to take advantage of a wealth of open-source code to create Access Linux Platform applications.

Still, the operating system's historic leadership in handheld computers is no longer a given. Microsoft has made huge strides in the two years that the Palm OS has languished, convincing even PalmSource's former partner-in-crime Palm to put Windows Mobile onto a Treo smart phone.

At the recent LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, CNET News.com sat down with Kamada, who is Access' chief technology officer, and Diaz, who is vice president for product marketing. They discussed the Access Linux Platform and the future of the Palm community. An edited transcript follows.

Q: Where do things stand right now with the Access Linux Platform?
Diaz: What we set out to do is start from Linux and create a complete, commercial-grade mobile platform. Linux is considered to be the third platform in the mobile industry. Companies such as Orange have said that moving forward they would support all the three main multitasking operating systems--Windows, Symbian and Linux.

When you try to build a mobile platform from Linux components, you find that you have to optimize some of them. Whether it would be for footprint or performance, you actually have to replace entire components sometimes or create components that do not exist at all. In addition, we are adding some key frameworks or subsystems that are not...in the open source area, so things such as telephony framework and messaging framework.

Kamada: Let's say only 20 percent of the system can be covered by open source. We develop all the remaining portions.

How much of the Access Linux Platform will bring Palm OS components forward?
Diaz: A big portion, actually. We are including a version of Garnet (Palm OS v5.4, the most current version) emulated. The approach is there is an abstraction layer that had been designed for Garnet to sit on various types of hardware, and we are now connecting this abstraction layer to Linux. So we are very much similar to Java; we are creating a virtual machine of Garnet inside the Access Linux Platform.

What will that do for the performance of Palm OS applications on the Access Linux Platform?
Diaz: We believe the performance will be good. Mostly it will be driven by the new processors that are available.

Well, it's still going to be emulated.
Diaz: It typically gives you software overhead. However, the bulk--if not all, actually--of all the commercial applications available for Palm were written for the 68K (processor, an old Motorola chip). Now you run (those applications) on an ARM processor.

It's a different style of emulation. It's a different approach to emulation. One of the things we are doing during LinuxWorld is to let Palm OS developers come and try their applications on our emulator. I really don't think performance will be an issue.

More Newsmakers

[Maccess]

If they pull it off....

...it would leave Microsoft's products as the only operating systems not built on a Posix compliant base.

My bets are on Microsoft dumping Vista or its successor to rebuild their OS on a POSIX compliant or even Open Source *nix base.

[ananthap]

As ever, it will be abouut volumes.

I believe that as in every other segment, the success (over anything more than a short term horizon) will depend on the volumes and "critcal mass". In this case, it would depend on completely unbundling the OS from the user's PC (desktop) where they keep all the programs. Now this is mostly a microsoft world and so it going to be very difficult for Linux apps to get a foothold here.

Other wise, we need a fully wired ASP type scenario, which of course needs a "universal" provider or a few top providerrs committing to Linux based services.

None of these is likely to happen soon.

[Johnny Mnemonic]

Really?

Considering the fact that Linux is the dominant
embedded OS platform, what would you consider
critical mass? Symbian is expected to be surpased
my Linux in the near term (volume wise). You need
to research the market before making such a comment.

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7070519787.html" target="_newWindow">http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7070519787.html</a>

[203129769353146603573853850462]

Tom looks freakishly large...

...in the main page thumbnail pic. His head is larger, but he's _behind_ Didier.

Maybe re-do?

BWilde