Wednesday, August 23, 2006
A Peek At The Next Operating System From ACCESS/PalmSource
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THE COMPETITION" @ 04:00 AM
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8921/access-linux-platform-at-linuxworld-sf/
A reader at PalmInfocenter attended the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco last week and brought back some interesting tidbits about the next operating system from PalmSource. Among the things mentioned were:
• The operating system will finally have true multitasking, but unlike Windows Mobile, the application will have to be specifically written to stay open in the background, otherwise, it will shut down into a saved state just like it does now.
• Four APIs are supported on the platform - Palm OS Garnet, Java, GTK+ and MAX. Palm OS Garnet, also known as Palm OS 5, will still run in an emulation environment on the device, but the platform may expose some of its features to the Garnet based apps, allowing new or modified Garnet apps some forms of multitasking for specific features.
• The primary target resolution is 240X320 QVGA, though other resolutions will be supported.
• Native Linux apps will run on a mini-X Windows system.
The platform has been described as pre-Alpha, so things are certainly subject to change. I think it will be unlikely devices will be seen in the next 12 months unless they button down the feature set pretty quickly then have a very fast and trouble free beta followed by a quick round of carrier trials. Of course, they could make a standalone PDA faster since the radios required for a phone take a bit more time to test and integrate. It is also likely the first area to get any device with the new platform will be Asia, not the Americas or Europe.
A reader at PalmInfocenter attended the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco last week and brought back some interesting tidbits about the next operating system from PalmSource. Among the things mentioned were:
• The operating system will finally have true multitasking, but unlike Windows Mobile, the application will have to be specifically written to stay open in the background, otherwise, it will shut down into a saved state just like it does now.
• Four APIs are supported on the platform - Palm OS Garnet, Java, GTK+ and MAX. Palm OS Garnet, also known as Palm OS 5, will still run in an emulation environment on the device, but the platform may expose some of its features to the Garnet based apps, allowing new or modified Garnet apps some forms of multitasking for specific features.
• The primary target resolution is 240X320 QVGA, though other resolutions will be supported.
• Native Linux apps will run on a mini-X Windows system.
The platform has been described as pre-Alpha, so things are certainly subject to change. I think it will be unlikely devices will be seen in the next 12 months unless they button down the feature set pretty quickly then have a very fast and trouble free beta followed by a quick round of carrier trials. Of course, they could make a standalone PDA faster since the radios required for a phone take a bit more time to test and integrate. It is also likely the first area to get any device with the new platform will be Asia, not the Americas or Europe.
