Linux-Based Palm OS Development Kit Coming Soon

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5:30 am on February 15, 2006 | Category: Mobile Devices, PDAs, Software

PalmSource has promised to release a software development kit for its forthcoming open-source mobile operating system, Access Linux Platform (ALP), by the end of 2006.

The new ALP operating system combines a Linux kernel with the NetFront web browser, and several well-known Palm applications, including HotSync and Palm Desktop. By launching a developers kit for the new OS, Palm hopes to alleviate concerns over future applications for its devices.

If launched at the end of this year as promised, the development tools will coincide nicely with the first Linux-based Palm PDAs, which are expected to ship in early 2007.

Existing users are being offered early reassurance that the new operating system won’t present any compatibility problems with current Palm OS applications. “ALP has been designed to ensure that properly written Palm OS 68k applications will run unchanged,” said PalmSource and Access in a joint press release yesterday.