Quote:
|
Originally Posted by BobR
Don't we already expect that it's likely Hawkin's secret "third business" will involve some sort of Linux platform? In other words, Linux doesn't seem to require the conclusion that pda/Treo lines are moving to a non-Access platform.
|
I think it could be a Linux platform, yes. The way he describes it (involving lots of storage capacity and fancy high-speed networking, for e.g.) it would probably be something that would do well with a standard file system and Linux protocol stacks.
The main things that makes me think the job postings I was reading are about building a smartphone platform are the use of the word "handset" in the job title and my understanding that Garnet is going to be a sticky problem for Palm OS Treos that are expected to run on some 3G networks.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Chaos
Erm... Is it a mistake that those diagrams suggest that no 3rd-party apps will be Linux native, or is that just a bad decision by Palm?
|
That was intentional on my part. Not that Palm doesn't want to have an open Linux platform at some point, but that if they are trying to get an updated version of Palm OS to market quick they might not expose their native Linux APIs at first. Also, I hate to say this, but some operators might like it better if the Linux APIs were not exposed since they might see this as causing support headaches for them. If Palm wants this to be used on cheaper Treos they are going to want it to be as trouble free as they can make it because support calls burn up the value to the operators very very quickly.
One other reason maybe not to create and publish a public API on the native Linux side: if Palm wants to keep the door open for ALP they might not want to do this only to say a couple years later "just kidding about that API... now we want you to use this one."
This is all speculation, of course. I don't have any knowledge about real decisions Palm has made in this regard, good, bad or neutral.