PalmSource Names Jean-Louis Gassee Chairman of the Board

PalmSource today announced Jean-Louis Gassee has been appointed Chairman of the PalmSource Board of Directors. Gassee, 60, was appointed to the Company's Board of Directors in May 2002. He replaces the outgoing Chairman Eric Benhamou.

Last August (2004) Eric Benhamou announced his intention to resign his position as Chairman of the Board effective following the Company's annual meeting held on October 28, 2004.

"We are delighted that Jean-Louis has been appointed Chairman," said David Nagel, CEO, PalmSource. "He knows our company. He knows our product. He knows our customers. He knows our market and he has a proven record of successfully building and growing companies. I'm looking forward to working with Jean-Louis as PalmSource continues to provide the market with the industry-leading Palm OS for smartphones and mobile devices."

"PalmSource is a leader in operating systems for smartphones and mobile devices, a growing market with tremendous potential," said Jean-Louis Gassee. "I'm excited to work with Dave, PalmSource's management team and its talented people to expand the Company's leadership to the next level of growth."

About Jean-Louis Gassee
Gassee currently serves as a general partner with Allegis Capital, a venture capital firm. Previously, he served as president and chief executive officer of Computer Access Technology Corporation, a leading provider of protocol analyzers. Before joining CATC, Gassee was president and chief executive officer of Be Inc., the maker of a high-performance operating system for information appliances. In 2001, Palm, Inc acquired technical assets from Be, Inc. Prior to Be, he was a nine-year veteran of Apple Computer Inc. where he served in a variety of executive positions, including president of the Apple Products Division. In addition to PalmSource, Gassee serves on the board of Electronics for Imaging, Inc.

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Cobalt please!

Wolfgard @ 11/2/2004 12:10:10 PM #
Hopefully now they can get Cobalt out of the door.

pen & paper -> m515 -> Zire72 -> TH55
RE: Cobalt please!
karrock @ 11/2/2004 1:00:07 PM #
Hey, it's only natural, since Palm bought his BeOS...

~Tony

Pilot --> V --> m505 --> Tungsten T3

RE: Cobalt please!
ehanneken @ 11/2/2004 1:20:15 PM #
Cobalt has been out the door for 10 months: http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6409

The mystery is that no device manufacturers have used it in their products.


RE: Cobalt please!
Token User @ 11/2/2004 1:56:31 PM #
People still have a hard time seperating PalmSource from PalmOne. PalmOne make handheld devices, PalmSource makes operating systems. Cobalt has already shipped to manufacturers, the manufacturers are yet to launch a Cobalt device.

Beside setting corporate direction, does the President of a company actually have much say in when products will ship?



~ "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed." - DV ~

RE: A well built PDA please!
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/2/2004 9:31:44 PM #
Cobalt has been out the door for 10 months: http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6409

The mystery is that no device manufacturers have used it in their products.

A reasonable facsimile of Cobalt was "released" in December, 2003, basically so Palm could say it was out. That version was not redy for prime time and could never have been used on a shipping device unless a manufacturer either had a deathwish or was interesting in testing their ability to recall devices. Sony would have been the ideal company to bring out a real Cobalt device, but they've left the building along with Tort Elvis. The only mystery is why anyone still gives a flying fcuk about Cobalt at this time. People are treating Cobalt like it's the Second Coming. Cobalt is HYPE. As Public Enemy once said, "Don't believe the hype!"

People still have a hard time seperating PalmSource from PalmOne. PalmOne make handheld devices, PalmSource makes operating systems. Cobalt has already shipped to manufacturers, the manufacturers are yet to launch a Cobalt device.

PalmSource and Pa1mone are divisions of THE SAME COMPANY. Do you really believe that they are separate companies just because they say they are? Sheeeeeesh!




******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

You want Cobalt? Get Palm to outsource it to HandEra!
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/2/2004 11:00:33 PM #
Palm should have just fired most of its engineers (and other miscellaneous Rosencrantz & Guildenstern type hangers on) in 2002 and then outsourced the OS development to HandEra. They would probably have had the new OS ready for use 12 to 18 months ago. Palm could have taken the new OS and the T3 design to a manufacturer like HTC in 2003 and had an amazing device on the market for the past year. Instead, they have nothing but the kind of vaporware we haven't seen since the heady days of Sprinboards.

Fast forward to late 2004: a Great American Company (HandEra) has now essentially been killed off, Palm has NO devices shipping with Cobalt, and consumers have started testing the waters with PPC. Way to go, Palm.



******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: Cobalt please!
just_little_me @ 11/3/2004 12:47:01 AM #
Palmsource and palmOne ARE NOT divisions of the SAME company! They are legally seperate, publicly traded entities.

Just because you choose not to believe the truth doesn't make it any less true...


JLM.

RE: Cobalt please!
justauser @ 11/3/2004 1:12:09 AM #
Palmsource and Palmone are separate companies. If they were working together, it would be called 'collusion' and the directors would end up in jail. Clearly they are not operating together. To think otherwise is either paranoid delusion or cause to call the cops.

Palm has had enough legal problems without attempting a cartel.


PalmSource vs. Pa1mOne
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/6/2004 8:58:48 PM #
Palm has had enough legal problems without attempting a cartel.

Ever wonder why "Jean-Louis Gassee" looks so much like Pablo Escobar? Now you know. Just make sure you never use JLG's toilet - otherwise you might just end up with a "Colombian neck-tie". Adios, señor...





******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

palmOne MS Rumor

hkklife @ 11/2/2004 2:03:19 PM #
I think the main story of today is more likely the rumor about M$ getting in bed with P1 rather than PalmSource's new chairman.

It would help matters if there were any remaining licensees with deep-ish pockets. I cannot help but think that P1 is becoming like Atari of the early-mid 90s---still holding onto decent cash reserves but afraid to spend it on anything of consequence.

My guess is that P1 is amassing all of their cash to do one of two things:

1. Launch a line of high-end M$-powered Treos and keep OS 5.x around for mid to low range smartphones. We will likely never see a Cobalt PDA from P1, at least not in '05. P1 may feel that PalmSource is on its last legs and they want to be able to sit on the fence for a while in case that does happen, knowing full well that switching the OS on some Treos will only further undermine PS' fortunes. P1 & PS will continue tweaking OS 5 (because cheaper is ALWAYS better to these guys!) to successively higher revisions and the Tungsten line will be whittled down to one or two models at most.

2. Keep putting good but not large amounts of $ into Treo development while sticking with the current PDA line and try to juice it as much as possible with minimal R&D $. Essentially, they are going to ride the Treo wave as long as possible while trying to make themselves look attractive to as many suitors as possible for an acquisition or merger of some sort.

RE: palmOne MS Rumor
LiveFaith @ 11/2/2004 9:02:10 PM #
Yep, looks like the photo of a Treo running Windows has surfaced. It's definitely Windows OS!

http://www.churchoflivingfaith.com/images/treo666.jpg

Pat Horne; www.churchoflivingfaith.com

RE: Ringo is dead rumor
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/2/2004 9:19:12 PM #
My guess is that P1 is amassing all of their cash to do one of two things:

1. Launch a line of high-end M$-powered Treos and keep OS 5.x around for mid to low range smartphones. We will likely never see a Cobalt PDA from P1, at least not in '05. P1 may feel that PalmSource is on its last legs and they want to be able to sit on the fence for a while in case that does happen, knowing full well that switching the OS on some Treos will only further undermine PS' fortunes. P1 & PS will continue tweaking OS 5 (because cheaper is ALWAYS better to these guys!) to successively higher revisions and the Tungsten line will be whittled down to one or two models at most.

2. Keep putting good but not large amounts of $ into Treo development while sticking with the current PDA line and try to juice it as much as possible with minimal R&D $. Essentially, they are going to ride the Treo wave as long as possible while trying to make themselves look attractive to as many suitors as possible for an acquisition or merger of some sort.

- Palm has almost no cash left.
- Pa1mone and PalmSource are the same company, despite the "official" split. You don't make business decisions in one branch of your company that will harm another branch. (Unless your company is named Sony.)
- Palm's R+D is essentially dead. They will milk the Treo for all it's worth. Then they'll flog it until it's dead. Then they flod the dead hosre until the police show up.

It's too bad Palm annoyed Sony to the point that Sony dumped Palm.





******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: palmOne MS Rumor
justauser @ 11/2/2004 9:22:45 PM #
You crack me up Pat

Welcome back!

RhinoSteve @ 11/2/2004 2:24:24 PM #
John,

Welcome back and enjoy the helm. The best thing that PalmOne needs is competition. Get others to use Cobalt, let the B-list that was kept at PalmOne do their Management by Spreadsheet and most of all, start another PDA company to use Cobalt!

The Rhino Charges!
Steve

PalmSource Snookered Twice

Gekko @ 11/2/2004 2:51:51 PM #

Fool me once...


More Apple INCEST
Gekko @ 11/2/2004 6:02:18 PM #

"First I sold them my overpriced company for millions! Then they named me Chairman! What a bunch of a$$holes!" - Jumpin' Jean-Louis

What is it with all of these Apple-Rejects and the INCESTUOUS appointment of Palm leadership??? Didn't Steve Jobs fire all these guys for a reason??? God forbid they bring in an outsider who actually knows what he's doing. I think they're afraid an outsider would come in and fire everyone.

Where's all that fancy BE-OS technology that Palm shareholders paid dearly for and lined Jumpin' Jean pockets??? How many years ago was that purchase and do we see anything in a *REAL WORLD* device??????????????

AMAZING.



RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
Gekko @ 11/2/2004 6:20:02 PM #

At least they paid with Palm funny-money...way to go Yankowski!

Palm Buying Be, Inc.
Posted By: Ed on Thursday, August 16, 2001 9:56:59 AM

Palm, Inc. and Be Incorporated have just announced that Palm is going to buy the intellectual property and technology assets of Be. Palm is also trying to hire Be's engineering team. The price is $11 million, to be paid in Palm stock, following approval from Be shareholders.

"The technology and people from Be are highly regarded,'' said Carl Yankowski, Palm chief executive officer.

http://palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=2236



RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/2/2004 8:58:51 PM #
Where's all that fancy BE-OS technology that Palm shareholders paid dearly for and lined Jumpin' Jean pockets??? How many years ago was that purchase and do we see anything in a *REAL WORLD* device??????????????

Palm really just bought themselves a few engineers with this deal (like Dianne "BDSM" Hackborn, a.k.a. "hackbod") and it turns out that not much of Be's IP could be applied to the PDA front. As if no one knew that right from the beginning! We'll see a little Be-derived eye candy on Cobalt, but not much else. The Be purchase was about as useful as Palm's "brilliant" purchase of Anyday.com - in other words, a real coup.

http://boston.internet.com/news/print.php/383671

If you know anything about how Corporate America works, none of this should be surprising. In the corporate world you grease the Palms of your buddies and they'll return the favor later. Meanwhile Palm stockholders got another (more delicate) part of their anatomy greased, in preparation for something usually reserved for prison showers.





******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
rsc1000 @ 11/2/2004 9:07:08 PM #
What a dick. The Beos technology that is currently incorporated in Palm OS is in the form of the Cobolt media server and Cobolt 2d API (might be mistaken about the 2d API - please correct if i am wrong). Why are you asking the question "where is all this Beos technology" of PalmSOurce? They have delivered this technology already - 10 months ago. Ask palmOne or Sony (they are still in the game in Japan afterall). It's fine to be opionated (lord knows i am) but it's important to have opions based on facts.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
Gekko @ 11/2/2004 9:22:35 PM #
>"Meanwhile Palm stockholders got another (more delicate) part of their anatomy greased, in preparation for something usually reserved for prison showers."

No, I don't think a single drop of lube was used.



RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
Gekko @ 11/2/2004 9:25:14 PM #
>"What a dick. The Beos technology that is currently incorporated in Palm OS is in the form of the Cobolt media server and Cobolt 2d API (might be mistaken about the 2d API - please correct if i am wrong)...It's fine to be opionated (lord knows i am) but it's important to have opions based on facts."

Hey COBOLT Boy - learn how to spell and I'll work on my OPIONS.



RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/2/2004 9:29:01 PM #
No, I don't think a single drop of lube was used.

And they didn't even call the next day.



******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
NDPTAL85 @ 11/3/2004 9:42:06 AM #
rsc1000 @ 11/2/2004 9:07:08 PM

"What a dick. The Beos technology that is currently incorporated in Palm OS is in the form of the Cobolt media server and Cobolt 2d API (might be mistaken about the 2d API - please correct if i am wrong). Why are you asking the question "where is all this Beos technology" of PalmSOurce? They have delivered this technology already - 10 months ago. Ask palmOne or Sony (they are still in the game in Japan afterall). It's fine to be opionated (lord knows i am) but it's important to have opions based on facts."

Um so how many current Palm OS customers have access to a pre-emptively multitasking operating system on their Palm? 0? Oh but I thought you said the BeOS tech was currently incorporated? So which is it?


Those kinky little Be engineers... ;-)
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/4/2004 12:16:58 AM #
Where's all that fancy BE-OS technology that Palm shareholders paid dearly for and lined Jumpin' Jean pockets???

Regarding ex Be Bopper, Dianne "BDSM" Hackborn ("hackbod") - if you've ever been tied up in a meeting this charming young lady, you'd agree that whatever Palm paid for Be was a bargain given she was part of the package.

http://www.angryredplanet.com/~hackbod/



******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
hackbod @ 11/4/2004 8:01:06 PM #
Hi The_Voice_of_Reason,

I would please ask that you stop posting statements as fact when you actually are just speculating and making assumptions.

Many of your comments are easily proven to be false. For example, anyone is free to register as a developer and download the current Cobalt simulator. It has been available to third party developers since February, and there are developers who are currently programming against it. It looks like the 6.1 simulator is also now on our web site, so you can download that and see the most recent version in action, complete with pretty new UI.

I understand the frustration with not having Cobalt available on devices yet -- speaking as someone who put a lot of work into it, I think I am at least as impatient as you are. I can assure you, however, that the long wait has little to do with it being "ready for prime time". (I say little because I will freely admit that the version released in December -- before the 6.0.1 point release a few months later -- was not something we wanted shipped on devices, but it was a very important release to get into our licensee's hands. It was a real, running system from which licensee development could begin; there were just a number of rough edges that needed to be fixed before it actually shipped.)

Ironically, at the same time you are complaining about JLG becoming chairman of the board, you are also complaining about palmOne and PalmSource being "effectively the same company." (You actually said divisions, but from any legal perspective you look at that is clearly false -- they are legally completely 100% separate companies.) In fact JLG's transfer to chairmain of the board is breaking the final last little connection between the two companies. And while you can only take this on faith, I can assure you that we have been been operating as different companies for a long time -- well before the official split happened, even.

The rest of your statements and insinuations about the Be acquisition, PalmSource, and other topics also have little to do with reality, but it would be harder for me to prove so. All I can say is that from my perspective the Be aquisition was really important for PalmSource (and they got an incredible deal on Be because of the time that it happened), there is a significant amount of technology in Cobalt that was being developed by Be at the time (no, it is not BeOS -- but in many ways it is our vision for what a next-generation BeOS should be), and PalmSource's engineering group at this point is extremely strong.

Finally I am not sure what your intent was in bringing up my personal involvement in the leather community, but you can rest assured that I don't mind. I have never put anything up on the Web that I had a problem with anyone seeing.



--
Dianne
PalmSource Application Frameworks Manager

Dear Dianne Hackborn, from your
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/5/2004 2:50:00 AM #
Hi The_Voice_of_Reason,

Hi right back at ya, DK.

I would please ask that you stop posting statements as fact when you actually are just speculating and making assumptions.

Almost everything I posted was based on the facts at hand (some even gleaned from a couple of people that worked at Palm until fairly recently. From what they say, Palm has been an absolute mess for the past couple years.)

Many of your comments are easily proven to be false. For example, anyone is free to register as a developer and download the current Cobalt simulator. It has been available to third party developers since February, and there are developers who are currently programming against it. It looks like the 6.1 simulator is also now on our web site, so you can download that and see the most recent version in action, complete with pretty new UI.

I also can download Microsoft's Flight Simulator, but it's not quite the same as flying a real plane, is it? http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs/
Of course, I'm being facetious, but you get the point. DK, PalmOS 6 (Cobalt, if you must) should have been on shipping devices no later than Spring, 2004 if you had any hope of being taken seriously. Time's up and you're a year late. Sure, you had a lot of headaches trying to drag hoary PalmOS kicking and screaming into the 21st century without breaking all the legacy apps, but then, who said life would be easy? You're a Big Grrrl now - no excuses, please. Please call me when the Cobalt 6.3 simulator (with neural net capability) is available.

I understand the frustration with not having Cobalt available on devices yet -- speaking as someone who put a lot of work into it, I think I am at least as impatient as you are.

Actually, at this point I don't give a rat's a$$ when/if PalmOS 6 finally shows up to the ball. I've seen it and I'm not impressed. PalmOS 5.2 and a couple of utilities give me all the added functionality I need from a PDA. I really think that after all the hype, people will be "underwhelmed". Sorry. I know you worked your little butt off to overcome all the lamea$$ed, slackjawed, sloppy(seconds)-coded inherent limitations of PalmOS, but at the end of the day - for even a power user - compared to PalmOS 5.2, Cobalt ain't all that. I realize it wasn't an option, but Palm should have listened to those of us that had suggested they pull a Microsoft and make a (relatively) clean break with the old OS. You could have hacked together an emulator for those looking for backwards compatibility. Heresy? Perhaps. But sometimes you can't move forward while you're looking backward at the same time.

I can assure you, however, that the long wait has little to do with it being "ready for prime time".

Whatever. If you're saying your December, 2003 PalmOS 6 was ready to be put on a shipping device, I just lost all respect for you. Don't expect me to call you in the morning. I would consider the Christmas 2003 PalmOS 6 to be the PalmOS equivalent of pleather. Gotta love those pleather bodices...

(I say little because I will freely admit that the version released in December -- before the 6.0.1 point release a few months later -- was not something we wanted shipped on devices, but it was a very important release to get into our licensee's hands. It was a real, running system from which licensee development could begin; there were just a number of rough edges that needed to be fixed before it actually shipped.)

What, you say? What? In our house? Will you be saying the same thing (i.e. you just were wanting to get SOMETHING into the hands of developers) about PalmOS 6.1 in a few months?

Ironically, at the same time you are complaining about JLG becoming chairman of the board, you are also complaining about palmOne and PalmSource being "effectively the same company." (You actually said divisions, but from any legal perspective you look at that is clearly false -- they are legally completely 100% separate companies.) In fact JLG's transfer to chairmain of the board is breaking the final last little connection between the two companies. And while you can only take this on faith, I can assure you that we have been been operating as different companies for a long time -- well before the official split happened, even.

Pépé joining Palm's Musical Chairs board game is merely another symptom of the inbreeding rampant at the company. When do I get a turn to play Chairperson? Yankowski PROMISED me a turn! No fair! Waaaaaaaah! Yes I know Palm has "officially" been split into two companies. Palm went to great lengths to dramatize this "official" split. They did a good job, too - at last count there are now seven people over the age of two that actually believe the divisions - ummmmm I mean "companies" - are fully autonomous. No doubt Palm's legal team (by the way, why do you have more lawyers than engineers?) has made gosh darned sure that "they are legally completely 100% separate companies". As Einstein used to say: "Whatever."

Since we're taking things on faith, I just inherited a nice Victorian in the Castro I'd like to sell it to you for $10,000. Please send small, unmarked bills to the post box listed below. I will then mail you the keys and directions to your new home.

The rest of your statements and insinuations about the Be acquisition, PalmSource, and other topics also have little to do with reality, but it would be harder for me to prove so.

Whatever, DK.

All I can say is that from my perspective the Be aquisition was really important for PalmSource (and they got an incredible deal on Be because of the time that it happened), there is a significant amount of technology in Cobalt that was being developed by Be at the time (no, it is not BeOS -- but in many ways it is our vision for what a next-generation BeOS should be), and PalmSource's engineering group at this point is extremely strong.

Fact: Be was a dead company. Pépé is the one who "got an incredible deal" for his white elephant.
Fact: Be had essentially zero experience in PDAs.
Fact: HandEra could have created a stable, functional PalmOS 6 - that was ready to ship one year ago - for a fraction of what it cost to buy Be.
Fact: HandEra had no engineers involved in the BDSM scene. (But I'm starting to wonder about Waldron these days...) Iowa BDSM scene - now that's a scary image...
Fact: HandEra was not owned by someone with personal ties to Palm's previous Board of Directors.

Why is it that this "extremely strong" engineering group has nothing in consumers' hands to prove that strength? Oh yeah - it's not up to PalmSource to actually include the new OS in a real PDA. OK. So how come no one seems to want the Amazing, Fantastic, Shiny OS names Cobalt. Is is like that proverbial pretty girl that never had a date because all the boys (and girls) were too intimidated to ask her out? Meanwhile that Little Slut, Garnet gets more action than Amsterdam on a Saturday night. Also, why is it that this "extremely strong" group botched the minor OS bugfix release (candidate) 5.4 so badly that even the native PIM apps were rendered useless? Oh, was that Pa1mone's fault as well? And around and around we go.

Finally I am not sure what your intent was in bringing up my personal involvement in the leather community, but you can rest assured that I don't mind. I have never put anything up on the Web that I had a problem with anyone seeing.

"Leather community"? Good one. Is that like "Collateral damage"?I don't know too many lesbian computer engineers into bonding with dominant, sadistic masochists while wearing pleather but you're probably just confused and merely waiting for the right guy. You know what you really want. You wish! Now get me a beer!

www.angryredplanet.com/~hackbod/adult/

I wonder if Mike Cane will ask you for any photos again. Poor little geezer must be quaking in his pixie boots. You should have emasculated him. Wait a minute.. too late.


Dianne
PalmSource Application Frameworks Manager

Sorry for teeing off on you like this, DK, but it appears you're the only one at PalmSource with the cojones to try to respond to this whole sorry situation the company has found itself in. What pi$$es off so many longtime Palm users is the fact that we seem to be seeing a great OS get smothered by an inept parent and no one at Palm seems to be interested in lifting a finger to save the OS. Maybe you'll prove the naysayers wrong, but at this point the burden of proof is squarely on your pleather-padded shoulders. Good luck. And make sure to keep your resume updated - f***edcompany.com might be getting an addition from Milpitas in the next few months if this keeps up.

Remember: the Safe Word is PPC.

;-O




******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
mikecane @ 11/5/2004 9:34:01 AM #
>slackjawed<

And here I was thinking his BDSM remarks were more of his trademark snideness.

How the hell do you *find* these things?!

That said, lay off the gal. She went out of her way to at least *try* to allow us to get a Slash icon in that Status Bar. (Not that I actually have any idea what to *do* with the code she supplied.)

And, yes, having gone over all the traffic here at PIC about Cobalt, they *should* have broken from the past and started anew. Cobalt isn't The Next Big Thing, but that still doesn't stop me from wanting it on a device (hello, **Tapwave**?).

Maybe after Cobalt, they will do Plutonium and *finally* put in all the shizzle the OS desperately needs...

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
hkklife @ 11/5/2004 10:52:01 AM #
Why is it in all of the years I've been visiting & posting to PIC (back in the days of anonymous posting!) we never had such sordid, insider info as we've had the past month or so!? Now in the death throes of the Palm OS all of the juicy bits come out of the woodwork! Egads, I wonder if it was like this in the dying days of Commodore, Atari, Sinclair etc.

I suppose that all of the "insiders" who have been lurking on the site will finally start to come forth and spill the beans. At least the flames will keep us nice and toasty during the long winter months while we wait for the OS6 units to arrive in the spring ;-)



RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
Admin @ 11/5/2004 12:32:15 PM #
TVoR - I welcome your contributions to the site, but the off-topic personal attacks have to stop. I don't tolerate them against anyone. Sometimes you make good points, but they will be lost if you continue to unnecessarily attack or insult any other poster. -Ryan
RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
hackbod @ 11/5/2004 12:46:56 PM #
This discussion has gone lower than I have any desire to continue (especially since I am just posting in my spare time), so a few final thoughts and then I'll bow out:

* I would argue there is more similarity than difference between desktop and PDA OSes. At the least, one of the things PalmSource had been lacking is a modern OS with protected memory and all that good stuff. The engineers from Be had a fair amount of experience building such a thing, and a lot of technology to bring to the table to bootstrap the effort. That doesn't mean we want to make a desktop OS, but most of the desktop/PDA issues center around the UI model instead of the underlying system architecture.

* Much of the work that has gone in to Cobalt has been architectural -- these are things that primarily help our developers and licensees do new things with the platform, and keep us competative. 6.1 is the first really visible taste of what the new platform will allow us to do at the user level, and you can expect to see much more significant changes in the future. You could draw some fair comparisons to the history of Windows NT -- remember that the first version, 3.1, basically looked the same as the old OS, and following versions provided more obviously visible features.

* Cobalt -is- a new OS with a compatibility layer on top. That is why we gave the two versions of the OS different names. (If you ever hear us talk about UILib, that is what we are talking about -- it is the library in Cobalt that implements the compatibility for all of the traditional UI APIs.) It's pretty naive to say we "could have hacked together an emulator" -- just doing that would have resulted in a really poor user experience for -all- of the applications that we currently have on the platform. We think our application base is extremely important, and don't consider that a viable options. As it is, I think our compatibility layer is actually better than what Apple did for Mac OS X, enough that you generally don't even realize it is there.

* Part of the reason it has taken a long time to get Cobalt devices out is due to the fact that it is a completely new OS. Our current licensees have a lot of experience working with Garnet, and it is a big transition for them to port over to Cobalt -- especially if they have done a lot of customization on Garnet. Fortunately it is a lot easier for them to port applications because of the compatibility layer in Cobalt, but that usually doesn't help for system-level customization. I can assure you it would be a much, much harder problem if we had followed your suggestion and just built a new OS with no compatibility with the past.

* Nobody from PalmSource was talking much for the last couple years probably because the vast majority of us were spending all our time writing a new OS that we couldn't publically say anything about. That's why you saw a flurry of activity when it was finally announced (and again when 6.1 was announced). However, given the quality of discussion on these boards, I can't say I feel much desire to continue much more interaction here. This is definitely not my idea of a positive use of my spare time.


--
Dianne
PalmSource Application Frameworks Manager

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/5/2004 10:47:41 PM #
TVoR - I welcome your contributions to the site, but the off-topic personal attacks have to stop. I don't tolerate them against anyone. Sometimes you make good points, but they will be lost if you continue to unnecessarily attack or insult any other poster. -Ryan

Ryan, this is your site do do with as you please, but I wish you'd at least treat everyone the same.

- First of all, Mike Cane (He started it! Waaaaa! Waaaaa!) has attacked me on numerous occasions and you've said absolutely nothing.

- Secondly, the repartee between Mike Cane, Geeko, myself and a few others is strictly tongue in cheek. Most people over the age of 13 would realize we aren't being serious. (And if any of us was serious we'd deserve to be locked in a padded cell immediately.)

- Thirdly, Flames are Fun™. Remember when Palminfocenter was a place for vibrant debates, joking, non-NDA leaks and other fun stuff? Those days are gone, but please don't try to censor any remaining irreverence out of the site. You are still independent from Palm, right?

- Fourthly, see secondly. WE'RE JOKING, Ryan. Yes we slip in a few viciously honest jabs here or there. And yes we (PIC readers) ask some question that Palm would prefer not be asked. But it's all in good fun - and in an effort to keep Palm honest and from committing apparent suicide.

- Fifthly I ALWAYS make good points. If people voted for the best poster here, I'd be #1. You're lucky I don't charge you... I deserve some kind of formal recognition on the main page, don't you think? I was going to send you a few articles I've written for publication, but maybe now I'll hold off until I receive that PIC Proclamation.

TVoR



******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
mikecane @ 11/6/2004 10:12:30 AM #
>>>- Fifthly I ALWAYS make good points. If people voted for the best poster here, I'd be #1. You're lucky I don't charge you... I deserve some kind of formal recognition on the main page, don't you think? I was going to send you a few articles I've written for publication, but maybe now I'll hold off until I receive that PIC Proclamation.

And people say *I* have an ego. This guy not only takes the cake, he takes all the crumbs, platter, cooking utensils and entire damned *kitchen*.

That being said, it doesn't matter *what* hackbod does in her private life. I have no interest in that (although what SF she reads might be interesting) and am only concerned with WTF Cobalt will bring -- if it ever arrives on a *non*-smartphone unit.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
Strider_mt2k @ 11/6/2004 2:07:40 PM #
I'm just glad someone else will cop to being into Babylon 5.

;)

RE: PalmSource Snookered Thrice (Be-by makes three!)
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/6/2004 2:38:03 PM #
And here I was thinking his BDSM remarks were more of his trademark snideness.

Me, snide? You must have me confused with someone else. Yourself, perhaps?

How the hell do you *find* these things?!

Let's just say a little bird told me. The BDSM scene is alive and well in the Bay Area (isn't that a surprise!) and everyone seems to know everyone else. They also showed me an extremely HOT video taken during one of those BDSM "parties". These girls are unbelievable. And unfortunately, UNAVAILABLE. I'm gonna work on getting an invite as a "guest", but I've been advised that that kind of thing is frowned upon. (And before you ask, no I won't send you a copy of the vid...)

That said, lay off the gal. She went out of her way to at least *try* to allow us to get a Slash icon in that Status Bar. (Not that I actually have any idea what to *do* with the code she supplied.)

I actually have more respect for DK than anyone else left at Palm. She also happens to be a very intelligent young lady. I realize she's a little sensitive and is (understandably) defensive of Be and PalmOS 6, but facts are facts. Cobalt is rapidly becoming an albatross around Palm's neck. I believe Cobalt was also a source of irritation to Sony. The simplicity and pragmatism of PACE is what Palm needed to replicate in PalmOS 6, while at the same time introducing a brand new OS that could handle future expectations of a PDA. Yeah, memory allocation might be a biotch, but as Tonto say, "PalmOS plenty heap good"! Hardware has reached the point that Palm could have created a UNIX flavor tied up with a pretty new GUI (Yeah, that's right, Ms. Hackborn). HandEra could have given us a MEAT and POTATOES new OS that we could have seen on SHIPPING devices over a year ago. Instead, Palm tried to reinvent the wheel with the mishmash of parts (Be engineers) they had lying around. Not a good idea, and the recipe for the disaster which has now befallen Palm. Someone here made a joke earlier about Palm continuing to revise PalmOS 5 (Miss Popularity, "Garnette") to something like version 5.999864. I actually think they'll NEED to do this. With Zero Cobalt devices shipped and several million PalmOS 3, 4 and 5 devices in circulation/active use, how many developers will embrace Cobalt? If I was a professional developer, I'd adopt a wait and see attitude regarding PalmOS 6 and would not recompile until I was sure this ba$tard child ever will be released (into the wild, like Melissa - ;-)).

"Something's rotten in the state of Cobalt"
- Hamlet Nagel

And, yes, having gone over all the traffic here at PIC about Cobalt, they *should* have broken from the past and started anew. Cobalt isn't The Next Big Thing, but that still doesn't stop me from wanting it on a device (hello, **Tapwave**?).

Palm needs to decide if it's too late to salvage Cobalt or if they should just can it and start out with a fresh page. Palm needed to do what the dumba$$es at Apple finally did a few years ago: suck it in and MOVE ON. Obviously, given the facts that over two years have been wasted on Cobalt and this would be a major embarassment, I doubt Nagel has the guts to pull the plug. This OS really is the ba$tard child of Be, and if Palm outsourced rapid development of a replaement OS to e.g. HandEra, most of those former Be-Boppers would be let go. But then MAYBE we'd finally see an advanced OS on a SHIPPING Palm device next year.

Maybe after Cobalt, they will do Plutonium and *finally* put in all the shizzle the OS desperately needs...

Needs shizzle? What da fizzuck you talkin' 'bout? "Slutty Garnette" is da shizzit! Word, mofo. Peace.

http://www.asksnoop.com/





******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
mikecane @ 11/6/2004 4:04:29 PM #
If Garnet is as far as palmOne intends to push PalmOS, they are dumber than I ever thought.

TapWave pushed the envelope. 128MB contiguous RAM vs 64MB on the T3 and T5. It's obvious when those people left p1, they took what brains p1 had left.

Dear Ms. Hackborn, don't take Palm's problems personally
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/6/2004 10:57:52 PM #
This discussion has gone lower than I have any desire to continue (especially since I am just posting in my spare time), so a few final thoughts and then I'll bow out:

DK, if you were really offended by anything I said, I apologize. Please don't accept criticisms of PalmOS and the bumbling ineptitude of Palm as being criticisms of you in any way. I'm sure by now you've become quite frustrated with trying to get things done in Palm's corporate environment. That your group has reached this far working under those suboptimal conditions at Palm is quite an achievement.

* I would argue there is more similarity than difference between desktop and PDA OSes. At the least, one of the things PalmSource had been lacking is a modern OS with protected memory and all that good stuff. The engineers from Be had a fair amount of experience building such a thing, and a lot of technology to bring to the table to bootstrap the effort. That doesn't mean we want to make a desktop OS, but most of the desktop/PDA issues center around the UI model instead of the underlying system architecture.

I agree that given the current level of hardware now available, PDAs can now afford to use desktop type OSes, provided the interface is appropriate for their very different data entry and access paradigm. (For the benefit of those unfamiliar with Palm's history) when Palm started nine years ago the übercheap hardware it ran on was the rate limiting step, so their choice of Kadak's AMX kernel and maintaining the KISS principle (eschewing multitasking) was a good idea. But over the years - out of necessity - PalmOS grew haphazzardly, like a city sprawling WELL beyond its borders. After living with years of hacks, FFS, VFS etc, Palm should have just started COMPLETELY from scratch with no compromises. But they were too lazy/indecisive to bite the bullet and get this done until the need to compete with PPC features finally exposed several of the PalmOS limitations. For years, Palm's standard response to criticisms of the OS was "That's not a bug, it's a feature!" Eventually more and more people grew tred of hearing that sad refrain and moved on to other platforms. After Sony and HandEra hacked the he11 out of PalmOS just to get some basic things done, Palm finally committed to upgrading the OS. But then the bottom fell out of the PDA market and tons of staff were being let go. What's a poor PDA company going to do? How can we update the OS with a skeleton crew of disillusioned engineers? Enter, Stage Left: the Be Boppers. (That's when you come in, DK!)

* Much of the work that has gone in to Cobalt has been architectural -- these are things that primarily help our developers and licensees do new things with the platform, and keep us competative. 6.1 is the first really visible taste of what the new platform will allow us to do at the user level, and you can expect to see much more significant changes in the future. You could draw some fair comparisons to the history of Windows NT -- remember that the first version, 3.1, basically looked the same as the old OS, and following versions provided more obviously visible features.

Unfortunately, this isn't 1998 and you don't have the luxury of being essentially the only game in town. Palm can't afford to wait two or three years as Cobalt matures and gets over its growing pains. Palm needed a modern OS in 2003. It's now almost 2005. At this rate, PalmOS 6 will soon become yet another useful OS that was killed by the ineptitude of the company selling it. Palm's board needs to take some lessons from the history of Amiga, OS/2, BeOS and Mac. History repeats. Repeatedly.

* Cobalt -is- a new OS with a compatibility layer on top. That is why we gave the two versions of the OS different names. (If you ever hear us talk about UILib, that is what we are talking about -- it is the library in Cobalt that implements the compatibility for all of the traditional UI APIs.) It's pretty naive to say we "could have hacked together an emulator" -- just doing that would have resulted in a really poor user experience for -all- of the applications that we currently have on the platform. We think our application base is extremely important, and don't consider that a viable options. As it is, I think our compatibility layer is actually better than what Apple did for Mac OS X, enough that you generally don't even realize it is there.

For PalmOS 6, I had expected that Palm would have been brave enough to think UNIX flavor + pretty GUI + PACE clone (the "emulator" I naively envisioned being folded into the Clean Sheet™ OS) running on modern 400MHz processors. Give 30 experienced engineers 1 year to bind all these elements together. I think it could have (and should have) been done.

* Part of the reason it has taken a long time to get Cobalt devices out is due to the fact that it is a completely new OS. Our current licensees have a lot of experience working with Garnet, and it is a big transition for them to port over to Cobalt -- especially if they have done a lot of customization on Garnet. Fortunately it is a lot easier for them to port applications because of the compatibility layer in Cobalt, but that usually doesn't help for system-level customization. I can assure you it would be a much, much harder problem if we had followed your suggestion and just built a new OS with no compatibility with the past.

Yes we've heard that excuse before. A few times, in fact. Unfortunately excuses mean nothing when the market marches by and leaves you standing still + watching your market share slip through your fingers. I never suggested Palm should have "just built a new OS with no compatibility with the past". Please don't put words in my mouth. Palm's major advantage over PPC (besides its superior UI) has been the PalmOS library of apps, even though this is much less of a factor than it was even two years ago. There are many ways of maintaining backwards compatibility while still moving forward with a "new" OS. Mac OS X, PalmOS 5 (with PACE) and Cobalt are three examples I'm sure you're familiar with. And which of these methods of instituting an emulation mode (or more correctly "compatibility layer", as you phrase it) is the best? Actually, it doesn't matter. If they're transparent enough to the end user (adequate speed, stability, etc.), since most end users aren't computer geeks, they really don't care how the end result is achieved. Just look at FFS and VFS. You might think these are ugly hacks/kludges/nasty code. But they do the job, and were coded fairly quickly. I think the Be influx of engineers with "pie in the sky" ideals of creating perfect, pretty code resulted in Palm(Source) losing its focus. All you needed to do was quickly produce a stable, next-generation PDA OS. Not the ultimate scalable version of HAL 2000 you seem to be agonizing over month after month. Hoffman's a very smart guy, but I still don't think he gets "the big picture". But then what would I know - I'm just an "outsider" ;-O. Heh Heh Heh...

* Nobody from PalmSource was talking much for the last couple years probably because the vast majority of us were spending all our time writing a new OS that we couldn't publically say anything about. That's why you saw a flurry of activity when it was finally announced (and again when 6.1 was announced). However, given the quality of discussion on these boards, I can't say I feel much desire to continue much more interaction here. This is definitely not my idea of a positive use of my spare time.


--
Dianne
PalmSource Application Frameworks Manager

Sorry you feel that way. I really am. You were truly a breath of fresh air around here and will be missed. It was nice to hear from someone in the PalmOS trenches who understand exactly what's going on instead of hearing the typical apologist nonsense from Michael Mace. Take care, DK. Maybe I'll see you around.

;-)





******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
hackbod @ 11/7/2004 3:09:11 AM #
"How the hell do you *find* these things?!"

All you need to do is click on the link to my profile, click on my home page there, and you will be at the exact same URL that has been posted here. I have never hidden these parts of my private life (hell, many people at work are well aware, in general, of my extracurricular activities), so it's really silly to make such a big deal of it here.

Of course the comments that TVoR goes on and makes about the BDSM scene, while implying some knowledge of it, are basically completely wrong. But that seems to be par for the course for this poster.

Except that... yes, everyone does know everyone, and now probably have a good idea of who the person is that TVoR has been talking with. Of the people who know me, there are very few who are in the scene and would have a negative opinion of the Be acquisition. I wonder how happy this person would be to find out that some conversations he has had with a friend have been used to publicly attack me -- and pointlessly try to "out" me. People in the scene really don't take kindly to that kind of behavior.


--
Dianne
PalmSource Application Frameworks Manager

Personal attacks demean us all. -Be ashamed.-
Strider_mt2k @ 11/7/2004 8:00:44 AM #
I think it's shameful to bring ANY personal stuff into a non-personal argument. I don't care WAHT it is.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and bet that the VAST MAJORITY of people who log on here are interested primarily in PALM OS and PALM OS HANDHELDS, and NOT what someone does in their off hours.

If you cannot make an argument and have those arguments stand on their own, then concede the point like an adult and SIT DOWN SIR.

Dredging up personal stuff on someone in some awkward attempt at salvaging a point in an argument is one of the lowest, slimiest things I have ever seen pulled here.
"Seriously F-ed up" as it was put to me by an associate.

(I can hear the flame throwers gassing up as I type this, but it hasn't stopped me from voicing my opinion in the past either.)

As people continue to conduct themselves in this manner (please take the time to read who posts the most of what here in the news section), there will be a widening credibility gap when it comes to PIC.

How can you expect anyone to ever take your technical views seriously if you tarnish what might actually be a valid point with a personal attack?

The answer is they won't take you seriously at all (and don't).


RE: PalmSource Snookered Twice
mikecane @ 11/7/2004 1:12:34 PM #
Her! Hear!

Now back to flaying Bradley, Nagel, Slotnick, et al...

OK, people. Let's all just take a deep breath and... RELAX.
The_Voice_of_Reason @ 11/7/2004 3:20:03 PM #
so it's really silly to make such a big deal of it here.

Wow, Mistress Dianne! Would you please take a chill pill? Who's making a big deal of anything? What you do after 5 p.m. is really a non-issue. In fact, your lifestyle is almost tame for The City. You should know better than to make assumptions about people you don't know. I thought you had a better sense of humor than this, DK.

Of course the comments that TVoR goes on and makes about the BDSM scene, while implying some knowledge of it, are basically completely wrong. But that seems to be par for the course for this poster.

Whatever. I'm not a part of the SF BDSM crowd, I just know a few people who are. I never claimed to have much knowledge of the scenes in SF and South Bay. Please don't try to put words (or anything else, Mistress ;-)) into my mouth.

Except that... yes, everyone does know everyone, and now probably have a good idea of who the person is that TVoR has been talking with. Of the people who know me, there are very few who are in the scene and would have a negative opinion of the Be acquisition. I wonder how happy this person would be to find out that some conversations he has had with a friend have been used to publicly attack me -- and pointlessly try to "out" me. People in the scene really don't take kindly to that kind of behavior.

DK, please don't get all paranoid and start trying to find out who I talked to. You won't find out (trust me) and you'll probably end up supecting one of your friends that is completely "innocent". I hope you don't do something really bad to the poor guy you're suspecting talked to me. Remember, it's all about trust. Don't be a hater, Dianne. ;-)

I actually posted an apology to you yesterday in this thread, but if you don't mind, I'd now like to take that apology back. Now go sit in the corner, young lady. When you're ready settle down, let me know and I'll give you your apology back.

Remember, the Safe Word is PPC.

XOXO,
TVoR





******************************************************************
Sony CLIE UX100: 128 MB real RAM, OLED screen. All the PDA anyone really ever wanted.

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