Palm OS dead?

[Ugur]

Hello everybody,

I'm a palm user for more then 3 years and had 3 tungsten T devices in my company and am actually using a palm tungsten E.

I love the usability of palm devices but I was always disappointed when it comes to durability of the devices. (After a year the display doesn't work properly, on almost all devices that we used - there are many more disappointing factors.)

Now my tungsten E has a few display problems, so I'm thinking of replacing it.

I have googled a bit and many articles indicate that the Palm OS is not being developed anymore (OS 6, called Garnet, will never be released it seems). Symbian and Windows Mobile seem to have won the OS-war in the realm of PDAs.

I have to add that I have bought many many little programs for my palm devices and that switching to Pocket PC (Windows Mobile) would mean not being able to use those programs anymore. Also my impression from the articles is that Palm OS is much better suited for GTD-implementation. So I would really pity it to give up the palm platform.

I would appreciate any comment on this topic.

Greetings from Berlin / Germany,

Ugur

 

[wordsofwonder]

Palm OS 6 (Cobalt) is not being developed; instead, Palm has begun aggressive development of the Access Linux Platform, a next-generation PDA operating system built around Linux that will reportedly be able to run old Palm OS applications in much the same way that Palm OS 5.4 (Garnet) emulates the Motorola 68328 processor on an ARM chip.

My advice? If there's a PDA on the market that does what you need, buy and use it and don't worry so much about the future. By the time you're again ready to buy a new PDA, Palm might have something spiffy and new out, or some other vendor might have the best product. I've never quite understood making purchase decisions based on what products might or might not theoretically be in existence at some indeterminate point in the future.

If you need a new PDA, find the PDA that's available right now that best meets your needs, and buy it. (If you're looking for a new Palm OS device specifically, I'm very happy with my Treo 700p, and I've also heard good things about the Palm T|X).

-- Tammy

 

[packmatthews]

Lenovo seems committed to the OS

I have had the same concerns about how long Palm will prevail and have had to really hunt for work arounds to keep the apps I love working from Palm to Palm. My love of the Palm goes all the way back to 1997. Even back then I was careful to make sure my data was not locked in to any particular iteration of the device. So it's not neurotic to be considering long term implications with each purchase. Now I don't even use flash memory on any of my devices for storage. As soon as possible, -even on my laptop- my data files are backed-up or saved initially onto several SD cards. (Back-up buddy is a great automated app.)
Pack

 

[ReBuild]

As you already have a commitment to the Palm OS, both in time and $, I would suggest that you stick with Palm. Should you change, you will have to go through the learning process again plus look for add on programs. Palm apps do not run on MS Mobile.

As to the best device/os for implementing GTD, you will find a wide range of opinions. At the end it's what works for you.

 

[Ed Svoboda]

If you think of the Palm as just a tool then I don't think what version of the OS is so important a question. My wife is using my old Handspring Visor (I think it's a Deluxe) which I used for close to four years before moving to a Dell Axim A5 and then on to a Compaq IPAQ. The main reason I moved to PPC was that we had them hanging around the office not being used.

I use Agenda Fusion but for a long time got by with just the installed applications without any issues.

 

[Tomas D.]

Palm apps do not run on MS Mobile.

I was out of touch with Palm world for so long, that I thought the same now that I have returned to my old Tungsten E, but Jeff of Shadow Plan fame assured me that Shadow Plan for one can be run on MS-powered handhelds, through Styletap - http://www.styletap.com/. It supports plenty other apps, I guess most of the major ones at least.

 

[ScottL]

Heh. I've had 3 sony (Palm OS) PDAs and had no problems. I've heard problems from people with palms. Alas sony is not making them any more. Best advice? Heh. buy a used sony PDA. No I'm not kidding. You could transfer over all your stuff no problem.

 

[jarvek7]

I love my palm and have heard that palm is dying for quite some time. When the Treo 700 came out as PPC only- they said palm was dead... well palm users had other ideas, thus the treo 700p.

I use a tungsten E and I may sound like a dinosaur but I love the grafitti squiggles that I use to input my on the go data.

I use agendus and think it works well with GTD. It isn't the tools that are keeping me from full GTD implementation... it's me.