So, will Tokyo-based ACCESS kill off the Palm OS, once it owns PalmSource? Or will it keep it going, maybe even restart Cobalt, originally touted by PalmSource as being 'designed from the ground up to enable new classes of smartphones'? And what of Linux, what's the story there?

One major clue, particularly to the Linux part of the equation, came in comments made yesterday by Toru Arakawa, CEO of Tokyo-based ACCESS Co., Ltd: "PalmSource's earlier acquisition of China MobileSoft (CMS), a developer of Linux technology, provides the foundation to promote Linux-based platforms for mobile devices," Arakawa said.

So does this mean ACCESS intends to spearhead a Linux-based version of the Palm OS and then go after Asian manufacturers? An announcement yesterday stated that, "With this acquisition, ACCESS gains operating system platform expertise and Linux development resources [emphasis added] for mobile devices in the U.S., France and China."

The market for a Linux-based version of the Palm OS in China could be massive. When PalmSource bought CMS, it already declared in December 2004 that the acquisition meant it would be adding to its offering "a fast-boot Linux kernel, feature phone platform, and core applications such as MMS, WAP, camera, and games."

PalmSource said that it intended to offer future versions of Palm OS Cobalt as a software layer on top of Linux (specifically, on the Linux kernel plus selected Linux services appropriate to mobile devices). "The Palm OS software layer will include our well-known UI as well as a set of middleware and applications that encompass the best of Palm OS," the company said in a statement: 

"We intend that properly written Palm OS 68k applications will run unchanged on Palm OS for Linux, and that Palm OS Cobalt native applications using the Palm OS Protein APIs will port with a simple recompile. In addition, Palm OS for Linux will be able to run many third party Linux applications and services (GUI applications will need to use the Palm OS APIs)."

CMS  had been developing a version of Linux with optimizations designed for smart mobile devices, especially around battery management and fast boot time. "We will be using that technology as the foundation of Palm OS for Linux," PalmSource declared. 

"When I think of the Linux desktop of the future, I think of it on my phone; on the embedded devices I spend most of my time with. The only thing that has been missing is the applications, and PalmSource's move into Linux helps to erase that gap," said Matt Asay, director, Linux Business Office, Novell, Inc. "The combination of Palm OS and Linux would appear to make this optimistic view of the 'embedded desktop' a near-term reality. I'm therefore excited by PalmSource's announcement and heartily welcome their contributions to the Linux community."

With the ACCESS acquisition, perhaps Asay's enthusiastic predictions, made back in December 2004, will become true. The future of the Palm OS may well be as a software layer on top of the Linux operating system, and it may well be based henceforth in Japan and China, far from it sorigin when originally developed by Jeff Hawkins in 1996 for use on the original Pilot PDA by US Robotics.