Linux Q&A with former PalmSource developer

[Bob Russell]

Today David Beers has begun what is hopefully going to be a series of interviews with developers in the mobile computing world. His first installment highlights Marty Fouts, a Linux kernel developer who was with PalmSource until earlier this month serving as technical representative to the open-source community.

He discusses some very interesting topics, although many specifics are off limits because of a non-disclosure agreement with PalmSource that is still in effect.

Here are some interesting excerpts to whet your appetite...
-- "PalmOS is pretty much a dead end now."
-- "I still think the two players to watch are Access, with NetFront, and Nokia with Maemo." By NetFront he means "the existing Access product and their model of using a web-like interface as the GUI for all applications"
-- "Linux isn't really special as a mobile device OS. In fact, it needs a lot of work to become a good OS for constrained devices."
-- "BSD was technically very superior to Linux"
-- "In the end, you either have to have a single dominant Linux-for-embedded distribution, or no one will be able to make money selling linux."
-- "... a 'smartphone' or any other PDA-like device isn't a "real" embedded system. It's just a general purpose computer that's been shrunk."

Granted, these comments might have a bit more shock value when taken out of context like this, but surely it gives you plenty of incentive to read the full interview! Kudos to David and Marty for some great material.

By the way, Software Everywhere -- David Beers on Mobile Computing is an excellent blog with a heavy dose of Palm related information and speculation. David himself describes the blog as "Thoughts on mobile technology, software development, and the future of computing from veteran Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Java developer David Beers."

Other recent articles discuss topics like integration of PalmOS and Access' NetFront, and Hacking Linux onto Palm devices. It a site well worth bookmarking or adding to your RSS feed list.

David has been an excellent participant in many great discussions on PalmOS in various forums and it is very nice to have people like him in our mobile computing community. And, of course, we are also proud of the fact that he is also a fan of MobileRead!

[Laurens]

Really good interview. Thanks for the pointer, Bob. The guy makes a lot of sense. His assertion that Linux is mostly a social phenomenon and not necessarily a technical one is right on the money.

[Gatton]

Originally Posted by BobR

Here are some interesting excerpts to whet your appetite...
-- "PalmOS is pretty much a dead end now."

Uh oh. And here I was thinking of picking up a Z72 Pretty interesting read.

[cervezas]

Originally Posted by Gatton

Uh oh. And here I was thinking of picking up a Z72 Pretty interesting read.

I think the "dead end" that Marty is talking about is, from his perspective, something that we come to down the road a bit. He believes ACCESS will deliver Palm OS for Linux (under some name that won't have "Palm" in it, of course) but will eventually decide to give it an end of life. It's still a matter of speculation what the reason for that decision would be. Does he believe they'll have trouble selling it to device vendors like PalmSource apparently had with Cobalt? Does he think they'll decide they can do better by focusing on their own way of doing phone applications on Linux, which uses NetFront as a GUI engine? And if so, what would be the reason they decide that? Some kind of technical limitations with Palm OS for Linux? Something that takes nothing away from Palm OS but makes the NetFront application engine inherently more promising, either technically or from a marketing standpoint? We don't know and Marty can't tell us.

I found it somewhat frustrating talking to Marty about this because the NDA meant he couldn't really explain why he held the opinions he did. So I had no way to evaluate whether his skepticism about the long-run prospects for Palm OS would be considered justified by an objective person party to the same information. He's obviously very knowledgeable and I think he's a good guy, but he's also human and he just went through an unhappy separation from PalmSource. The fact that he has been so publicly vocal with these negative opinions leads me to believe there's some emotion involved. I learned a lot in talking with him and think his judgment in many topics we discussed is probably very sound, but on the question of the fate of Palm OS I consider his proclamations to be yellow flags not red ones.

Definitely food for thought for any Palm enthusiast, but I suspect that even Marty would be quick to tell you that the concerns he has shouldn't keep you from buying a Palm OS device today.