[dwig]

The possible move, by Palm, to a Palm UI on a Unix-variant core (Linux) may prove to be a good move. They are, IMHO, caught with a major choice on their hands and only two ways to go.

One route would be for Palm to strip their OS down to the very basic kernal targeting it for devices with embedded OS's that are hidden from users. These are devices like cash registers, basic phones, fax machines, ... , and other smart devices where the OS faces inward to the device and not outward toward the user. Its a large market but well populated at present and would be new to Palm. This would be a poor choice, IMHO.

The other is to advance the OS into the current trend of "more bells and whistles in my toys so I'll buy new ones even even though the old ones do the job fine". Here, Palm is better off using a well established existing OS kernal and using there relatively limited resources in porting the Palm user experience. Apple found this the better route when they needed to replace their antique and cumbersome OS with something more adaptabe to changing processors, device interfaces, and communication protocols. Apple took that portion of the OS that users saw and put in on top of a more adaptable kernal.

This second route is not without its risks, though. The market moves fast and one false step can kill the effort leaving Palm to be picked apart in recievership. If Palm does, in fact, make this move they must hit the streets with a stable release day one. It must also support legacy PalmOS apps, at least those written to the newer PalmOS5 & 6 APIs. Failure to do this will cause users to avoid the devices using the OS and their market position, falling as we talk, will evaporate before they can fix the issue and make a second release. For developers, this is somewhat of a scarey scenario and will be until much more is know about Palms intentions and design.