My first Palm (US Robotics at the time) handheld was the Pilot 5000, soon upgraded to "Pilot Pro" with the addition of a little memory (1 meg, wohoo) and a system upgrade.

Then I had a IIIx and now a Palm T|X.

With every iteration the platform has been getting steadily worse. The T|X has an absolutely crappy WiFi layer, an abysmal Web browser and what's more doesn't even sync the same way as the other machines that use the *same* system. Which does make a lot of difference when you run Linux.

I say let them die already. They dug their grave, push them in and let's be done with it.

With Windows Mobile being slow, buggy and only working with Outlook despite having been an avid Palm user since my first Pilot and having bough the 650 then 680 and now Centro I am now considering switching over to Google for everything and buying one of these Android Phones or something similar.

All I want is a simple desktop planner that works off a thumb drive (like the present Palm Desktop can) and is totally reliable. Palm should either keep up or merge with someone like Google.

Until recently people would see the Palm Desktop get interested then see the phones and all of a sudden the interest was gone. In the last few months though many people I meet just want to know what browser is on the phone and does it work with Google.

Shame really, as the OP said, will there be any users left by the time the new OS comes out ?

Of course there will. Most Palm users I know would rather cut off their right arm than switch to another OS. The fact is, flawed as Palm OS might be, the alternatives are a damn sight worse.

The thing is, it's not the actual OS that makes Palms great, it's the methodologies. Everything is so damn quick and intuitive. Threaded messaging, the glorious ease with which you can input calendar apts, it's all about the no-nonsense "I'm going to make your life better" attitude. Whatever's under the hood, as long as Palm redeliver these with their Linux incarnation, everybody's happy.

Goddamn I hope Palm read the comments on their Register articles.

What are you smoking?

My Treo sometimes takes so long to respond to a button push that the phone goes to sleep. The thing is a pig. It's huge too. Wait a *year* for a replacement? That is running the first release of a brand new OS? That sounds like an invitation to buy an iPhone to me.

IMHO this will make life hard for palm as Android will be pretty much ready by then.

The reason why a lot of people stuck with the treos is that there are a lot of third party apps that you can easily install on your phone. Neither Symbian (not enough software, not easy to install) or the iPhone (Apple limitations on what can be in the app store) were seen as ideal alternatives. If the appstore of android is as free and as successful as many hope this will make android a prime candidate for palmOS replacement, creating a lot of competition for Palm.

Granted, Windows mobile could be an alternative, but most people with a palmOS device rejected it already...

I switched. Loved my palm but they never seemed to make phones that didn't have ridiculous keyboards. Got fed up of carrying two things around - so now i have a HTC diamond as a holding measure until android gets sorted. Windows mobile is awful compared to the simplicity and speed of palmos, but ironically more stable than the T5 it replaces. Palm kept us waiting too long.... but i'm sure i could be tempted back.