Can Linux save Palm?

Palm Computing, which defined a whole new category with the PDA and then saw it shrivel, is attempting a comeback based on Linux. (Picture from the PalmInfoCenter.)

A new version of the Palm Treo, due out by the end of the year, will run on a version of Linux. This news comes just two months after Access, which supplies the current PalmOS, said it had sent out product development kits and launched a global partner program for a mobile Linux.

Current versions of the Treo run Windows. So will Linux save the category? Does anyone want a PDA anymore? Will U.S. cellular carriers support it?

Over the last few years the PDA category has been squeezed on both sides, with newer phones and smaller laptops both making inroads. The idea of a computer (that's not a computer) which fits in your suit pocket sounds cool, and for a long time our family used them, but in recent times we've abandoned our Palms, and I suspect you have to.

So can this category be saved? And is Linux the penguin to do it?

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