With the Windows Mobile and Symbian war going strong, Palm has decided to explore a less travelled path. Palm CEO Ed Colligan announced today that his company will be releasing a new OS by year’s end. The new OS will be based on the Linux kernel and will be merged with Palm’s current Garnet OS 5.4.
There was speculation as to why Palm decided to acquire the full rights to the Palm name a little while ago. Some believed that this would enable Palm to infuse their tired and dawdling OS with some multi-tasking snazz. They turned out to be correct. With full rights to the Palm name, and an unlimited license to the Linux source code, Palm can do whatever it with its new OS – like merging it with the current Garnet OS (a show of good faith to the Palm community).
Palm will still offer Windows Mobile on their devices, but we have a feeling that this is just the beginning for Linux domination.
Expect this new OS to rock Opera browser and Chattermail messaging by years end. Better late than never we suppose.
Via: Palm