PalmSource Goes Linux
While Symbian and Microsoft fight it out for smartphone dominance, PalmSource is still trying to figure out ways to remain relevant outside of their niche (Treo) market. Their latest move is to try to tie themselves up with the Linux community by buying China MobileSoft and working on a Linux-based version of the PalmOS. With interest in the PalmOS mostly dwindling (even to the point of rumors that PalmOne would offer a non-PalmOS Treo at some point), PalmSource obviously needed to do something -- and combining their own developer community with the Linux developer community could certainly generate plenty of interest from the developer side. However, actually getting the OS onto devices is still a huge marketing challenge, and vendors are going to want to see what really comes out of this merger before they agree to do much. This is also interesting, considering that PalmSource bought Be for their BeOS operating system a while back, and the latest versions of PalmOS are apparently based on BeOS. As great as BeOS was, from a technology standpoint, going in such an obscure direction didn't necessarily help grow their developer community. Moving towards Linux will hopefully reverse that trend.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
