Palm Pulls Plug – Would You Trust Internet Explorer as Your Operating System?

According to this article, Palm has pulled the plug on PalmOS.

This is a sad but pretty much expected announcement.  Some would argue that Palm gave up on PalmOS a long time ago by using Windows Mobile in places and by actually selling the PalmOS to Access (whoever that is).

Palm is betting the farm on WebOS.  I predicted that Palm was going to bet the farm on whatever came next, largely because they’re in trouble.  It didn’t take far-reaching fiscal insight to come up with this revelation :)

I have a Treo 700p, which runs the PalmOS.  I find it reasonably stable but it could certainly use some improvement.  I was very excited to hear that Palm was finally going to make use of linux for their next OS, as it’s very stable (and my desktop platform).  It would be extremely nice to have an official linux desktop client too, but that’s a pipe dream.

As for as I know, there have been no significant OS or hardware improvements to the Treo after the 700p.  Yes, the antenna bump was removed (whoopee!) but let’s deal with reality here…

I have already outlined my disappointment with the parts of the new Pre of which I’m aware but this WebOS seems like a real loser (my point of view).  I am not interested in the web except for surfing.  I prefer my OS to be running on my processor… I’m funny that way (and in many other ways).

There are about thirty thousand independent Palm developers who have authored about one hundred thousand applications for the PalmOS.  Palm is trying to convince them, reaching out to over ten million web developers.   They have released precious few details on the new alleged OS, other than to state that it supports a number of web standards.

I don’t know about you, but if I’m interested in the web, I open a browser, not my OS.  There is no doubt that part of this effort is to make things pretty, which I absolutely despise, although it seems to work for others.

What’s worse from my point of view is that the programming will now be in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, which is part of what bothers me about the web.  Bad programming and tons of vulnerabilities do not a reliable OS make. Put another way, would you trust Internet Explorer as your operating system?

Good luck, kids….. I can’t see this being the product/OS for me.  And my enterprise users.  And friends and family.  And most readers of this blog.