Actually, LINUX IS JUST A KERNEL, along with device drivers.
No it isn't. The kernel might be the most important part, but all OSes have
kernels, and "operating system" <> "operating system kernel" in most people's
lexicon. OTOH, I don't believe an OS contains as much as MS says it does either :-)
to make for a nice user experience that matches (and
often surpasses) that of Windows or OS X.
Debatably :-)
and you get a very advanced operating system
"Advanced"? Unix is a very old-fashioned operating system.
All they need to do is port the Palm OS
GUI user interface to run on the Linux kernel, which has already
been done by China MobilSoft, now owned by PalmSource.
Everything I've read suggests it's something they are thinking of doing, not
something that has been done already.
But in any case, you just have yet another GUI toolkit. What is going to
convince people to use it? The pendulum for PDA development is very much
swinging the way of Windows Mobile, and putting a Palm-lookalike GUI layer on
top of Linux is going to be seen by many as yet another nail in the coffin of
the PalmOS, because there will no longer be a PalmOS.
And then there's the time it's going to take to get real devices out.
If they do things intelligently, it will be possible to run most
or all of the existing Palm OS apps on the Linux-based system
The only possible way to do that would be to use emulators, the same way they do
on PalmOS 5 devices. The PalmOS API is much more than just a GUI on a kernel.
Most of the API is not GUI related.
(Now, I hope that wasn't just wishful thinking.
I very much fear it is. Porting a desktop/server OS to a PDA still strikes me as
fundamentally wrong. That's why so many of MS's efforts in this arena were crap
(and even now taints some aspects of Windows Mobile)
Garnet has been good
But it was only ever intended as a way station on the way to Cobalt. And it
hasn't been *that* good.
Try this:
No offence, but that's a pointless comparison. Ask Windows XP users if they want
to go to Linux, and even now, not many do (which is an equally pointless
comparison). Mobile devices are a completely different market.
If PalmSource tried to stick with Garnet
They shouldn't. They should have moved on past it some time ago. They haven't
been able to.
IMO, they are making good decisions
Then that'd be a first :-)
It's a lot easier
to adopt Linux and benefit from the work of thousands of open source
programmers, than to hire a bunch of expensive programmers to write
and maintain a proprietary kernel that has anywhere near the same quality.
They hired all the expensive programmers years ago when they bought BeOS (which
was an advanced OS) and promptly killed it. That obviously didn't work, but I
don't know that it has much to do with the programmers or how easy it is to
maintain a kernel. (After all, Palm have mostly bought the kernels in anyway.)
> I wish they would put a lot more effort into improving PODS!
PODS sucks big time. You're far too kind in your comments about it :-)
I meet a lot of developers through speaking at conferences and user groups and
so on. Often I'm talking about one form of PDA development or another. And I've
noticed a huge drop in interest in Palm development over the past few years.
There is such a big mindshare to win back, and just adding another GUI toolkit
to Linux is not interesting enough to do that.
But another big, big stumbling block is the recommended development environment.
PODS seems almost universally reviled, and it certainly puts off potential new
developers. When you compare it to modern IDEs it looks so cumbersome and
clunky. I've been taken to task here before when I've complained about the gcc
tools, but they really aren't up to snuff for commercial developers. Cygwin
installs properly about 1 time in 5, and basing anything on that is a recipe for
disaster. If Palm were trying to make a living out of selling PODS, they'd have
gone broke by now.
Supplying a free dev tool for an OS is nowhere near as important as supplying a
good one.
It's annoying and frustrating. I use my old Palm m505 every day in preference to
the much newer PPC I have, because I think it's a much better device. But as for
how much longer a Palm is going to be a choice...
Cheers,
Jim Cooper
__________________________________________
Jim Cooper [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype : jim.cooper
Tabdee Ltd http://www.tabdee.ltd.uk
TurboSync - Connecting Delphi to your Palm
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