Whoa! Palm, has a new Linux OS

PalmInfocenter is reporting that Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm, Inc has annouced that Palm has been working on a Linux operating system with Palm OS for several years.

Link to the article at PIC.  Below is an excerpt from the article.  As for me, I am a bit surprised that they have been working on it for so long.  They even stated for having no interest in Linux in the past.  Future Palm devices will be powered by Linux at it’s core and have Palm OS 5 Garnet compatability layer.

Today 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. The new platform was just announced at the Palm Analyst meeting and details are light at this point and still coming in. Read on for some slides and more information from the presentation.

The platform is described as a “new foundation for Palm.” It will combine aspects of Palm OS Garnet and a Linux core. Palm plans to “evolve” the Palm Developer community to the new platform.

Colligan highlighted and stressed a few points about the new platform. He continually stressed the importance of the user experience citing the ability to have an instant on, highly portable device with great battery life. Other highlights included greater hardware flexibility and the ability to handle simultaneous voice and data, two key ares which have hampered the traditional Palm OS in recent years.

Another key aspect would be the device’s web browsing experience. Colligan said Palm is focusing highly on connected web applications and web services built around mobile devices. He cited the ability to easily backup and restore over the web, delivering software and device updates over the internet and wireless software distribution. The recent Opera brower licensing agreement is likely tied to this new platform.

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.