ACCESS Linux Platform announced - but don't expect anything before 2007

Alexander Turcic · 02-14-2006, 06:07 AM

I am not sure this is going to deliver everything they've promised, but Access, the Japanese company who bought PalmSource last year, has just announced their ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP).

"We believe that ALP combines best-in-class open source Linux components with proven mobile technologies developed by PalmSource and ACCESS' Linux expertise," said Toru Arakawa, president and CEO of ACCESS, Co., Ltd. "As a commercial-grade, flexible, open, robust and standards-based mobile Linux based platform, ALP is designed to provide handset manufacturers with faster time-to-market while supporting the goal of operators to offer revenue-generating services, applications and content."

Details:

ALP will include proven software solutions from both companies, including the NetFront browser and former Palm OS applications related to PIM, multimedia, messaging, HotSync and desktop components.
Application framework MAX designed to standardize (one-, two- and five-handed) navigation control and to support concurrent operations.
Support for the "existing Palm Powered Economy, the J2ME developer community and the open source community" - properly written Palm OS 68K applications will run unchanged.
Collaboration with leading mobile operators to integrate their feedback and requirements into ALP.
ALP SDK expected to be released by the end of 2006 (thanks Laurens!).

[via Palm Addict]

Laurens · 02-14-2006, 06:12 AM

The most important info:

Quote:

ACCESS and PalmSource expect to make the ALP Software Developer Kit (SDK) available to its licensees by the end of this year (2006).

Alexander Turcic · 02-14-2006, 08:02 AM

End of this year... that's late!

Laurens · 02-14-2006, 08:11 AM

They only mention the SDK, not the actual OS. And they only "expect to make" it available at that time. Translation: Q1 2007 at the earliest. God knows when we'll see the actual devices.

Bob Russell · 02-14-2006, 09:45 AM

I think OS5.+ can carry Palm Inc for a while. I just hope Access considers the OS to be a full mobile platform OS, not just a feature phone supporting OS.

And I know that there was a lot of effort required for PalmSource to help with software compatibility going from, say Garnet to Cobalt (not that it was needed after all), or for even the emulation layer in OS5 to work for non-native apps. Maybe someone can clean up the details there for me, because it's vague in my mind now. Called PACE or something wasn't it?

Anyway, what I'm saying is that it's not just providing the basic set of APIs that counts. There's a lot of work to handle cases where the APIs might differ slightly, or some might be deprecated or even removed right away, and there's all the cases where developers used common non-std code to get around limitations.

A lot of questions still up in the air, and I haven't had the chance to even read through the press release yet, but it's still exciting news. Even if we're talking 2007. And there's no severe chopping of functionality to focus on limited feature phones only, which I was concerned about.

I just hope it isn't adopted in devices at the rate Cobalt was! ;-)

Laurens · 02-14-2006, 10:16 AM

OS5 was originally meant as a stopgap solution to facilitate the transition to ARM-based hardware and PACE was the compatibility layer for running 68K PalmOS code. I'm pretty sure PACE was reused in Cobalt and I bet it's going to be reused in Access Linux as well. (Give or take a few modifications.) I don't think they've gone back and implemented yet another 68K compatibility layer.

gadgetguru · 02-14-2006, 10:36 AM

End of the year... and that's just delivering the SDK. So device manufacturer might need another months or so to make PDAs and maybe up to a year to make mobile phones...

Hopefully, Vista (which could be incorpoarted in mini-tablets and provide instant on technology) would not make PDA obsolete and that Windows Mobile would not have taken an insurmountable lead on the smartphone market by then...

Bob Russell · 02-14-2006, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gadgetguru

Hopefully, Vista (which could be incorpoarted in mini-tablets and provide instant on technology) would not make PDA obsolete and that Windows Mobile would not have taken an insurmountable lead on the smartphone market by then...

I think Vista may be a greater long run threat, but hardware needs to mature a bit more first. As we've seen, Win Mobile is progressing, but also pretty slowly. They are going through their new-version-aches-and-pains phase right now. In my opinion, it will be a while before we see them technologically dominant if ever. But the marketing machine, well, that might be a different matter.

And don't forget the non-PalmOS Linux piece of the equation. Don't know whether that will take off on handhelds, but it wouldn't surprise me if it does.

That's actually good news about the compatibility layer, Laurens. Might provide a pretty good solution after all. I feel bad for all the ambitious developers that about a year ago followed PalmSource's urging to convert their applications to use the new (not PACE) api's.

cervezas · 02-14-2006, 07:13 PM

A couple of points. First, in answer to Bob's hope that "Access considers the OS to be a full mobile platform OS, not just a feature phone supporting OS," I don't think there's any need to worry about that. Looking at the architecture here, I think it's safe to say that this system was designed from the ground up as a mobile computing platform, not just a phone. It's remarkable that they are now going to be shipping a system with an SQL relational database built into it, for example. And the fact that they are supporting applications written using the GTK+ toolkit, not just the Palm OS or MAX APIs, shows that they're really trying to attract Linux developers, for which GTK is of course very familiar.

Regarding the comments that they are "only" shipping the SDK, I'd say that shipping the SDK really is shipping the OS. What makes it an SDK is that you can write/build/test/debug applications, which is only possible if there is a system to run your software against. I don't even know what it would mean to ship an SDK if there wasn't a completed OS, and some kind of emulator for it going out at that time.

As for the reliability of the shipping date, if it actually came out on time we'd all just be suspicious that the suits had rushed it out the door, wouldn't we? Rest assured that whatever happens it will be universally hailed by Palm OS fans as sure sign of the death of the platform and the incompetency and/or corruptness of PalmSource!

02-14-2006, 06:07 AM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	ACCESS Linux Platform announced - but don't expect anything before 2007 I am not sure this is going to deliver everything they've promised, but Access, the Japanese company who bought PalmSource last year, has just announced their ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP). "We believe that ALP combines best-in-class open source Linux components with proven mobile technologies developed by PalmSource and ACCESS' Linux expertise," said Toru Arakawa, president and CEO of ACCESS, Co., Ltd. "As a commercial-grade, flexible, open, robust and standards-based mobile Linux based platform, ALP is designed to provide handset manufacturers with faster time-to-market while supporting the goal of operators to offer revenue-generating services, applications and content." Details: ALP will include proven software solutions from both companies, including the NetFront browser and former Palm OS applications related to PIM, multimedia, messaging, HotSync and desktop components. Application framework MAX designed to standardize (one-, two- and five-handed) navigation control and to support concurrent operations. Support for the "existing Palm Powered Economy, the J2ME developer community and the open source community" - properly written Palm OS 68K applications will run unchanged. Collaboration with leading mobile operators to integrate their feedback and requirements into ALP. ALP SDK expected to be released by the end of 2006 (thanks Laurens!). [via Palm Addict]

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02-14-2006, 08:02 AM	#3
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	End of this year... that's late!

02-14-2006, 08:11 AM	#4
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	They only mention the SDK, not the actual OS. And they only "expect to make" it available at that time. Translation: Q1 2007 at the earliest. God knows when we'll see the actual devices.

02-14-2006, 09:45 AM	#5
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I think OS5.+ can carry Palm Inc for a while. I just hope Access considers the OS to be a full mobile platform OS, not just a feature phone supporting OS. And I know that there was a lot of effort required for PalmSource to help with software compatibility going from, say Garnet to Cobalt (not that it was needed after all), or for even the emulation layer in OS5 to work for non-native apps. Maybe someone can clean up the details there for me, because it's vague in my mind now. Called PACE or something wasn't it? Anyway, what I'm saying is that it's not just providing the basic set of APIs that counts. There's a lot of work to handle cases where the APIs might differ slightly, or some might be deprecated or even removed right away, and there's all the cases where developers used common non-std code to get around limitations. A lot of questions still up in the air, and I haven't had the chance to even read through the press release yet, but it's still exciting news. Even if we're talking 2007. And there's no severe chopping of functionality to focus on limited feature phones only, which I was concerned about. I just hope it isn't adopted in devices at the rate Cobalt was! ;-)

02-14-2006, 10:16 AM	#6
Laurens Jah Blessed Posts: 1,295 Karma: 1373 Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: The Netherlands Device: iPod Touch	OS5 was originally meant as a stopgap solution to facilitate the transition to ARM-based hardware and PACE was the compatibility layer for running 68K PalmOS code. I'm pretty sure PACE was reused in Cobalt and I bet it's going to be reused in Access Linux as well. (Give or take a few modifications.) I don't think they've gone back and implemented yet another 68K compatibility layer.

02-14-2006, 10:36 AM	#7
gadgetguru Addict Posts: 214 Karma: 6370 Join Date: May 2003 Location: Asia Device: Tungsten T5	End of the year... and that's just delivering the SDK. So device manufacturer might need another months or so to make PDAs and maybe up to a year to make mobile phones... Hopefully, Vista (which could be incorpoarted in mini-tablets and provide instant on technology) would not make PDA obsolete and that Windows Mobile would not have taken an insurmountable lead on the smartphone market by then...

02-14-2006, 07:13 PM	#9
cervezas palm & java hacker Posts: 52 Karma: 251 Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Manitou Springs, CO Device: Visor, T3, i500, iQue ...	A couple of points. First, in answer to Bob's hope that "Access considers the OS to be a full mobile platform OS, not just a feature phone supporting OS," I don't think there's any need to worry about that. Looking at the architecture here, I think it's safe to say that this system was designed from the ground up as a mobile computing platform, not just a phone. It's remarkable that they are now going to be shipping a system with an SQL relational database built into it, for example. And the fact that they are supporting applications written using the GTK+ toolkit, not just the Palm OS or MAX APIs, shows that they're really trying to attract Linux developers, for which GTK is of course very familiar. Regarding the comments that they are "only" shipping the SDK, I'd say that shipping the SDK really is shipping the OS. What makes it an SDK is that you can write/build/test/debug applications, which is only possible if there is a system to run your software against. I don't even know what it would mean to ship an SDK if there wasn't a completed OS, and some kind of emulator for it going out at that time. As for the reliability of the shipping date, if it actually came out on time we'd all just be suspicious that the suits had rushed it out the door, wouldn't we? Rest assured that whatever happens it will be universally hailed by Palm OS fans as sure sign of the death of the platform and the incompetency and/or corruptness of PalmSource!

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