Programmer Planning Replacement DGOS Operating System

Posted By: Kris Keilhack on Thursday, October 30, 2008 9:05:34 AM

Palm OS programmer extraordinaire Dmitry Grinberg has quietly announced his "retirement from the Palm OS world" but at the same time has notified the Palm community of his most ambitious project yet. In a forum post made last week, Dmitry has announced his plan to seemingly single-handedly develop his own OS, coined DGOS. DGOS will use a completely new kernel, written from the ground up. He goes on to give further details, such as claiming that DGOS is expressly written to run on ARM-based devices and shall be a fully multitasking, multithreaded OS with protected memory access-something sorely lacking in the current Palm OS Garnet.

DGOS will supposedly run simultaneous multiple instances of Palm OS, with no recompiling or updating of any existing legacy applications needed to take advantage of DGOS' new capabilities. Dmitry's eventual plan is to release the project after making DGOS 100% Palm OS compatible and improving on many of the aging Garnet platform's shortcomings.

Despite now being a full-time employee of VMware, it appears that DGOS is entirely a personal endeavor for Dmitry taken up in his spare time. In the post, he does make specific mention that he will continue to support and maintain his most recent efforts, nuRom for the Palm LifeDrive and the widely-anticipated PowerSDHC driver replacement for numerous Palm OS devices.

Dmitry sums up his initial post with the statement, "Palm Inc's Palm OS may be dead, but hold on to your applications. DGOS will blow you away"

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Im skeptical

swieder @ 10/30/2008 9:46:18 AM #

Seems like an unrealistic task. How about building a Palm emulator for Google Android?

RE: Im skeptical

Gekko @ 10/30/2008 10:08:10 AM #

agreed. while i applaud his drive and technical skills, it doesn't make sense to me for a rogue lone wolf to build a nostalgic-driven, dying-platform proprietary OS which will be out there on an island all by itself. this isn't 1978. nice hobby or science fair exhibit but ain't going to go anywhere. better to piggyback and ride the wave of a growing new platform like android or iphone if you want to make an impact on the world and make a few bucks in the process.

i also don't understand the "i'm retiring (giving up) on the palm os" yet "i'm going to build a whole new OS based on palm OS."

RE: Im skeptical

mikecane @ 10/30/2008 2:50:11 PM #

I agree. By the time he finishes it, who will be left with Palm devices to use it?

RE: Im skeptical

BaalthazaaR @ 10/30/2008 3:05:36 PM #

And besides most TXs are not flashable either.

RE: Im skeptical

DarthRepublican @ 10/30/2008 3:51:04 PM #

I seem to recall that Linux started off with little more than a young, programmer with an itch to scratch and too much time on his hands. Of course it took Linux over a decade to become a stable OS that many people used and it still doesn't have mainstream acceptance. And Linux had the advantage that its open-source model has allowed for many people to contribute to it.

A lot of people forget that most modern operating systems - Mac OS X, Windows and Linux have foundations that go back decades. So whatever Dmitry does, he'll presumably be building on an existing kernel and emulating the PalmOS's UI and system calls in much the same way that StyleTap does. It's a process that could take a decade or more but people still use (or claim to use) ancient Apple Newtons, so it's not totally unrealistic to think that somebody might be able to dust off an old Palm TX and install a new OS on it.

If someday people can download a DGOS image, install it on a future HTC phone or Internet device, and use it to read decade old PalmOS PIM data then DGOS will actually have the potential to be a viable OS. But even if this doesn't happen, it will be an interesting project to watch.

Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

RE: Im skeptical

Gekko @ 10/30/2008 4:52:52 PM #

GEORGE: Dad, what's all this?

ESTELLE: (From other room) It's junk.

FRANK: My computers. I've been selling them for two months now. Shut up!

GEORGE: You're selling computers?

FRANK: Two months ago, I saw a provocative movie on cable TV. It was called The Net, with that girl from the bus. I did a little reading, and I realize, it wasn't that farfetched.

GEORGE: Dad, you know what it takes to compete with Microsoft and IBM?

FRANK: Yes, I do. That's why I got a secret weapon... my son.

RE: Im skeptical

dmitrygr @ 11/1/2008 12:01:25 PM #

> swieder: Seems like an unrealistic task. How about
> building a Palm emulator for Google Android?

So was skinui, sdhc, warpspeed, powerdigi, etc :-)
Not all of us are scared of hard project...some of us like them. So, to quote myself, "take your disbelief, and shove it!"

------
Software engineer at PalmPowerups.com
TH55/U + T|X2 + T|E2 + Zire 72 + Zire 31 + Visor Prism + WristPDA

RE: Im skeptical

tompi @ 11/3/2008 2:39:30 AM #

"I seem to recall that Linux started off with little more than a young, programmer with an itch to scratch"

The naysayers there were saying "it's too big of a job", "you'll get sued", etc.

Here, the problem is more like "who needs that"?

I'd much rather have an Android phone...

RE: Im skeptical

swieder @ 11/3/2008 6:42:04 AM #

>> swieder: Seems like an unrealistic task. How about
>> building a Palm emulator for Google Android?

> So was skinui, sdhc, warpspeed, powerdigi, etc :-)
> Not all of us are scared of hard project...some of us like them. So, to quote
> myself, "take your disbelief, and shove it!"

Spoken like a TRUE maverick.

Good luck with your efforts.

RE: Im skeptical

joad @ 11/4/2008 9:21:13 PM #

True. A "Maverick" with an actual chance of winning.

Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.

RE: Im skeptical

pmjoe @ 11/6/2008 9:16:22 AM #

From the linked discussion thread:

"i made my own os that implements multiple concurrently running instances of palmos, each of which is very lightweight and can run an app
this way each app runs fine concurrently with others - no recompilation of any apps needed"

Hmmm ... OK. But what about things like device drivers and databases which would/could be shared between apps? You'll have all kinds of concurrency issues if you allow apps to run concurrently with others.

Ahem

SeldomVisitor @ 10/30/2008 10:31:47 AM #

http://www.palminfocenter.com/comments/7380/#145713

RE: Ahem

twrock @ 10/30/2008 11:23:14 AM #

What?

"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)

Go Dmitry!

Poopie @ 10/31/2008 4:01:15 PM #

If any single person can build Palm OS upgrades that deliver more functionality *and* make a profit doing it... it would be Dmitry.

Wouldn't be entirely surprised if he gets Android running too by booting an alternate kernel.

Slap that on your $39 M515 PDA reading off an 8gb SDHC card or existing Treo phone. Maybe even "upgrade" your old Windows mobile device?

Way I see it - Dmitry could beat palm to the Nova punch.

... and that might be a good thing. How many idle frankengarnet devices are in your desk drawer? I'm down to three.

RE: Go Dmitry!

SeldomVisitor @ 10/31/2008 4:24:16 PM #

> If any single person can build Palm OS upgrades that deliver
> more functionality *and* make a profit doing it... it would be Dmitry.
>
> Wouldn't be entirely surprised if he gets Android running too by booting an
> alternate kernel...

http://www.palminfocenter.com/comments/7381/#145527

and

http://www.palminfocenter.com/comments/7380/#145715

Giggle.

RE: Go Dmitry!

Poopie @ 10/31/2008 4:55:53 PM #

SV:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/comments/7518/#144164

Giggle. :P

RE: Go Dmitry!

SeldomVisitor @ 10/31/2008 5:22:16 PM #

Giggle.

RE: Go Dmitry!

joad @ 11/4/2008 9:24:26 PM #

His UDMH has been a lifesaver numerous times for me (can't restore Java from a backup without it). He has a lot of other creative and groundbreaking software out there - I'd wager to say much more than Palm's entire team has accomplished over the last few years. So I wouldn't count him out if he says he plans to do it. Godspeed, Dmitry.

Paying my annual PDA update tax to Palm since 1997.

RE: Go Dmitry!

gtbaum @ 11/6/2008 9:35:56 AM #

BaalthazaaR: And besides most TXs are not flashable either.

Dimtry says: you do not need flashable rom. it can bootstrap itself form inside palmos, kick palmos out of memory, and boot.

RE: Go Dmitry!

BaalthazaaR @ 11/6/2008 12:25:40 PM #

BaalthazaaR: And besides most TXs are not flashable either.
Dimtry says: you do not need flashable rom. it can bootstrap itself form inside palmos, kick palmos out of memory, and boot.

Where did he say that? That would be awesome.

'Dmitry'

zire102001 @ 11/4/2008 3:16:11 PM #

that name I hear alot and it's usually Russian fake names - ie: I starting wondering awhile ago if this Dmitry was really his/her name but a fake name.. If you do some studying, you will get my drift. :)

Microsoft owns the world, But I'm a Linux/Ubuntu User.

RE: 'Dmitry'

Gekko @ 11/4/2008 3:49:22 PM #

i wish someone with the MI:2 DVD would rip and upload to youtube the airplane/unmasking/Dimitri scene for me!

RE: 'Dmitry'

stv @ 11/5/2008 7:46:58 AM #

Dmitry is quite common Russian name, not a fake one.

RE: 'Dmitry'

Gekko @ 12/7/2008 7:49:03 AM #

2:35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A3QDN8KrgE

Palm Software on sale