The Palm OS Ends With a Whimper

PetManimal writes "Computerworld reviews the Palm Treo 755p, the last Palm device with the Palm OS, and concludes that the OS is going out not with a bang but with a whimper. The article says there are some useful improvements (better integration with Exchange and IM, limited speech recognition, etc.) but 'nothing that will make you sit back and say "wow."' Palm already has at least one device with Windows Mobile (the 700w) and soon will make a big push to Linux devices, maybe by the end of the year. But the Palm OS, which was top dog for a while back in the 1990s, and is still used by many people who own Palm Pilots or Treos, is going to quickly fade, it seems."

That's great but...

[cstec]

PalmOS is just changing the kernel. It's anything but dead.

Would've died sooner if...

[michaelmalak]

Palm OS would've died sooner if Windows Mobile supported 320x240 prior to the just-released Windows Mobile 6. Windows Mobile 5 and earlier could only support even multiples and divisions of VGA, which is why the Palm 700w had a downgraded 240x240 LCD. For a history of why in Windows Mobile architecture, see the Feb., 2006 Windows Mobile blog [msdn.com].

BTW, I never thought Windows would be taking over the mobile world the way it has. But I admit, even I prefer it because I find it familiar. I avoided the whole PDA thing until they merged PDAs with cell phones -- because I never wanted to bother carrying around both. Now that I've waited, I've discovered it's a Windows-based world.

Why Does It Have to Go Out With A Bang?

[okmijnuhb]

The whole point of palm OS was that it delivered what was needed with simplicity, and no bloat, like it's rival at the time Windows CE.
A simple to do list, contacts, calendar, a memo pad was the core of the experience, and allthat you needed a PDA to do.

Depressing

[Anonymous Coward]

This news is somewhat depressing, I have to say. Though not at all surprising.

I've been using Palm devices for over ten years, and while it's been pretty apparent for a while now that Windows Mobile (or Pocket PC) has quickly grown to include more features and better integration with computer software, I personally don't like it at all. I think it's sluggish and poorly laid out. It can take several seconds to open the simply calendar, or the media player (during which time parts of the screen update before others, which is tacky), while the Palm is almost always instant. While that's obviously because the Palm OS is simpler and less graphically intensive, I have no problem with that. I like things to open the very instant that I tap on them, and this is always the case with my trusty Treo. My iPAQ, my friend's Dopod, and the various other Windows Mobile devices we have at work are all the same... slow and frustrating. They also crash a lot, which the Palm rarely does without the help of poorly written third-party applications.

I will mourn this unfortunate change.

Re:Depressing

[Planesdragon]

I will mourn this unfortunate change.

Which one? The switch to Linux, or the splintering of the interfaces?

The title flamebait, and amazingly wrong. Palm will keep on selling devices with "Palm OS" until they go out of business, just as Microsoft will keep on selling "Windows", Apple will sell "Apples", and GM will sell "Chevrolets".

By this time next year, you'll be able to buy an imported phone running "Palm on Linux" from Access, a phone running "Linux Palm OS" from Palm, and (please oh please) a geniune PDA from Palm with Linux under the hood. The differences for an end user will be no greater than the switch between a Palm III and a Palm TX.

The OS doesn't matter...

[rdean400]

Honestly, should anyone really care? If the next-generation Palm operating system is based on a Linux kernel but has the capability of running Palm OS apps in an emulation mode, should we care about what code base it runs on?

OS's aren't like people or pets. They're tools. When you've outgrown them, you can either upgrade them or find a new one. Obviously Access has no interest in updating the PalmOS, so Palm has to go its own way. I personally hope that they deliver new capabilities on Linux while retaining the simplicity of the Palm interface.

Go linux, go wiki

[draxbear]

I'm a palm user of over 10 years as well and happily keep my phone and PDA separate for a variety of reasons.

The biggest problem I've had with it is the lack of a Linux Palm Desktop. I really miss it having moved to Ubuntu and while I'm getting by with Jpilot I have lost a lot of functionality (specific to my behavior) having switched. Not to much joy with wine (due to a lack of knowledge on my part no doubt) either.

I hope that if/when they finally (2nd/3rd time lucky?) go linux we'll see a desktop released for that OS, or at least enough published to enable Jpilot and others to jump on board better.

While they're at it, perhaps they'll realize that wiki-fying their base menu system (address/memo/to-do/calendar) apps will make for a simple and enormously useful improvement in functionality.

Blackberry?

[voidstin]

i find the Blackberry Pearl a more than suitable replacement for my Treo 650. Not sure if it retains memory when then battery runs out (the treo didn't) but a re-sync gets it back in shape. Plus, the Java apps (esp Google Maps) are much better than the palm software.

Good Riddance, Palm OS.

Linux..

[White Shade]

All I can say is, I hope their linux systems run better than some of the nokia linux-based hardware I've seen, such as the N800 that you can brick by installing software on or looking at wrong.... you can recover them, but only by using linux commandline-only software on a desktop (that was a good waste of an afternoon).

I love linux, but just running linux doesn't automatically make things perfect. (awesome, sure, but not perfect. this is slashdot afterall).

Dear Palm: Want to go out with a bang?

[merc]

Open source PalmOS.

Seriously.

Windows Mobile would also have died...

[EmbeddedJanitor]

if it had to make a profit to stay alive like Palm did.

Windows CE/Windows Mobile was running at a huge loss, but has now broken even. Tactics like that do tend to allow you to destroy traditional competition in the long run. Linux-kerneled devices are growing faster than ever and MS does not have a recipe to destroy them.

Re:Good.

[F34nor]

If you love your Treo you should emasculate the little bastard.
http://www.treoantenna.com/shop/ [treoantenna.com] All the women love my stumpy antenna these days. All right no woman has noticed, not even my wife. She's got he god damn hollier than thou E61 with its Wifi and VoIP and... um never mind.

I love my Treo. The Palm OS itself sucks but there are so many apps for it that I cannot see appearing on Windows or Linux anytime soon. e.g. Tide charts and Bridge OC. Palm should stop being a bitch to the cell phone providers and add skype and wifi to these things. You can hack your treo to accept the SD wifi card so its clear Palm left it out just as a mea cupla
to the motherfuckers.

Re:Dear Palm: Want to go out with a bang?

[MsGeek]

No need to, read comments above you. The new "Palm OS" is going to be Linux-based, with emulation for old Palm apps. To be perfectly frank, I'm more excited about Palm going Linux than upset about the end of Palm OS. Basically Palm OS = Mac OS 6.x without Multifinder. Rest in pieces. The only thing I don't like about this is that Palm should have done this YEARS AGO. YEARS. They might be a little late to the party, alas.

Re:The OS doesn't matter...

[updog]

Of course it doesn't matter to the user.

But it does matter to us geeks, because we care what's under the hood. That's why we're discussing it - so to answer your question, yes, we do care, the OS does matter!

Re:Good.

[embsysdev]

Actually, it copies the prc file from the SD card into storage RAM and runs it from there. When the app exits, the copy is deleted. If the app crashes, the copy is left in storage memory.

I'm one of those users...

[WheelDweller]

After 27 years of computing, I got stuck in a town without any serious computer jobs, waiting for Mom to die. So I'm a security guard, and MAN, is that little old 10 YEAR OLD palm 5 a big help. I can take notes without looking, send emails that are legible instead of written reports that aren't, and it's a single sync and the night's paperwork is done and archived.

It was a good idea; branching out into hundreds of alternatives (and keeping their handwriting recognition sacred) limited the span. And just like SCO learned, charging $1,100 for a development system to create more software for your platform, there are worse things to lose than your money.

If they could just be talked into licensing their handwriting analysis code to other businesses, they just might save theirs...

PalmOS "died" with the Dragonball

[vrmlguy]

As far as I'm concerned, when Palm dropped Moto's Dragonball processor for the ARM, it was all over. About that same time they got rid of the original Graffiti for something that didn't use one stroke per letter. (Admittedly, this was due to a lawsuit, but the patent was eventually overturned; Palm did not return to Graffiti, however.) There's still a thriving market on eBay for the old Palm devices. I still use my m150, and have a couple of spares that are still shrink-wrapped. The battery life is still incredible. I can take it with me on week-long hikes without any worries.

Actually, there's a Palm III emulator that's been ported all over the place, including handheld versions of Windows. There's no reason why it couldn't run on a Linux-based PDA. Maybe I should change my subject: "PalmOS will never die!"