Yesterday "at Palm Inc's Analyst Day, Palm CEO Ed Colligan officially announced that Palm will deliver a new Linux and open source based mobile computing platform combined with Palm OS Garnet technology on new products later this year," reports Palm Infocenter.
Colligan also revealed that this was a new platform that Palm has been working on, in house for a number of years*. He stated that Palm would not license this new OS to outside hardware companies, meaning this will be a Palm exclusive platform.
This is a separate project from Palm Inc and is not related to the ACCESS Linux Platform, which is being developed by ACCESS, formerly PalmSource. Many of the technical software and hardware details have yet to be announced.
We've been expecting Palm to launch Linux-based devices for a year or two. The point here is that it's going to use its own Linux platform, not the one developed by what used to be called PalmSource, which used to be part of Palm. Confused? Don't worry. The chances of Palm selling a lot of devices in competition with Nokia, Motorola, RIM and eventually Apple are pretty slim. However, I suffer from a little-known medical condition called NFTGDOP (Nostalgia For The Great Days Of Palm) and I also think Ed Colligan is a great guy.
Colligan gave Bloomberg an interview on Monday, before his Analyst Day.
* Tip of the hat to David Beers of Pikesoft Mobile Computing who figured this out a year ago (Palm's Open Secrets Exposed) by reading Palm job adverts.
