PalmOS vs. Windows Mobile

Which OS is superior?

Personally, I prefer PalmOS. I like the simplicity of it, and just the way it works in general. Plus it doesn't come from Microsoft.

WM because I'm a MS drone. Buzz.

Windows Mobile, I'll explain...

First off, Palm themselves switched their Trio line, their most successful devices, to Windows Mobile. The OS division tried to sell OS version 6 of the Palm OS but nobody bought it and finally they, read this, discontinued the Palm OS entirely. There is going to be a Linux based OS made by a company called Access that will look similar to the Palm OS and might have enough emulation to run some of the Palm OS applications however the Palm OS itself is doing really badly.

Politics aside. The OS is very similar to Windows Mobile. WM (Windows Mobile) has its' initial screen displaying appointments and application launch is a seperate area while Palm has the appointments off to the side and the applications are shown to you first. The issue with Palm is that their appointments don't play nicely with other applications such as Outlook because they do not and I don't think will ever support multi-day appointments. Actually, I think OS 6 might have supported that, but nobody wanted to assist Palm there.

Microsoft might have been a tad annoying when going to VGA devices, as in their interface looks exactly the same as the lower resolution QVGA devices. However, on the Palm platform, a high resolution device can download applications that don't take advange of the high resolution and aren't scaled by the OS leading to some darn tiny text. Heck, AvantGo, a pretty popular application for me, looks horrible on a Palm.

Eitherways, I'm Windows Mobile at the moment but I really wanted Palm to be in the game instead of essentially dead. This field desperately needs competition and not from Microsoft itself (making smaller tablet PCs and trying to make ipod killers and such...). Look at Internet Explorer for instance. Microsoft declared IE finished and didn't release anything new for it, that is until Firefox came around and was such a superior product that they started to switch a ton of people over to that browser. Now, Microsoft claims that they will always support IE users and will develop new IE versions EVERY 9 MONTHS! Let's see... 9 months (now) from 4-5 years (potentially infinite, and before). Yes, Microsoft REALLY needs competition.

One thing about Palm that I really do like though, they always had cheaper and the cheapest device around. There isn't really a cheap Windows Mobile device you can obtain, unless you buy used...

<edit>
Before, and still today, Palm OS is known as the organizer OS. Their device always sounds alarms, the alarms are really darn loud, and there is lovely notifications when something happens. With that considered, it is a pity that it doesn't support multiple day appointments!

Windows Mobile was desiged as the application platform and as such it runs some really nice applications. I also personally like the Today screen showing at a moment's notice what appointments are comming up. However, the platform is infamous at simply not sounding alarms and the alarms are realitavely quiet. Heck, with the newest Windows Mobile version, they made the alarms even quieter... Ah well, the general idea is that each platform themselves had a focus...
</edit>

MS Mobile, there are alot of things that you can do with it. Better integration with windows and office applications, such as outlook.

Hum.. I must be out of it.. I haven't been up to date on PDA's for a while but I didn't realize that PalmOS has been discontinued.

I guess you guys are right about WM being more application based and PalmOS being more of an organizer with the apps as a secondary feature.

Windows Mobile is by far more powerful if you take the time to learn the intrinsics

I'm an application developer and bought an Axim x51v because I wanted to play with it and learn to program it. It is a very cool thingie. I actually gave a short lecture on programming it using VB.Net, which is available at www.nypcvb.org/downloads.aspx. It's the one from 2006-02.

It's quickly becoming something that I can't live without. I mean it's got a 624mhz processor! It wasn't that long ago that my main PC was slower than that. I read books on it, play games on it, play music on it, and even play videos on it. Oh, and yes, I keep my calendar on it. Plus I'm beginning to design the app that I want to write for my job.

It cost under $300 bucks on some Dell sale, and that isn't much more than an ipod. Of course, I've spent another $200 on accessories and sd cards and I'm about to spring for another $200 for a gps system. Why not? That reminds me, I have to go over to www.aximsite.com and see what the latest buzz in the GPS forum is like.

You can even overclock them! But it isn't recommended because it kills what is already pretty bad battery life.

Oh, there are all kinds of complaints in the aximsite forum about WM5, but almost all of those complaints are from folks who upgraded an x50, which came with WM3. Apparently the upgrade ROM is not so good. But the only real complaint from folks who buy the x51v, which does come with WM5, is that they are using the Microsoft bluetooth stack which apparently is fairly limited. I'm not sure why that is or what the real problems are. I use bluetooth to tether it to my cell phone to get on internet. The Axims don't have a phone built in but do have wireless internet if you're in hot spot. If not, tether it to your phone.

Really fun gadget though.

It sounds like I'll have to play around with one of these newer devices with WM on it. The last time I did was a year or more ago probably.

though I'm not a huge fan of MS (quite the opposite actually), I use Windows Mobile because it is, simply, just much more powerful. the devices that run it have better hardware than Palm devices, and the OS allows for multitasking and the programs generally have more features.

I am going to tinker around with a newer Palm OS device... I do so every now and again...

Who knows, I might have to use a Palm OS device more because Windows Mobile devices REALLY hate Linux and to a degree Macintosh computers.

khiloa said:

Hum.. I must be out of it.. I haven't been up to date on PDA's for a while but I didn't realize that PalmOS has been discontinued.

I guess you guys are right about WM being more application based and PalmOS being more of an organizer with the apps as a secondary feature.

Click to expand...

If you look into it, PalmSource (antiquated name, but it refers to the OS developers) made Palm OS 6, an update to OS 5 but yet it isn't necessarily as powerful as Windows Mobile in terms of multitasking. The main company who licenses the Palm OS is PalmOne (antiquated name, referring to the hardware makers). However, for PalmOne, they started to believe that the Palm OS kinda sucked so they decided to simply not update the OS on their devices.

PalmSource is in serious trouble now, they aren't getting money for their new OS. Also, PalmOne then takes their flagship device (the Treo smartphone devices) and makes a Windows Mobile version of it, Microsoft wants to be the solution to PalmOne not feeling so peechy keen about the OS wars.

Fast forward, PalmSource gets so weak financially that they are bought out by a company named Axcess (or alike). They licensed the Palm name back to PalmOne to try and get some money from that company. PalmSource is now struggling to make a Linux/Palm OS hybred operating system to answer concerns comming from PalmOne however that company is singing something along the lines of too little, too late. Also, since PalmOne didn't license Palm OS 6 (and isn't too keen on this Linux blend), no other companies would touch the Palm OS, not like there was many companies with an intrest to begin with.

So, yes, the Palm OS is in active development... however, no device manufacturer will spend licensing fees to bring it to you, therefore the OS developers faded away and the Palm OS died. You can hunt the internet with Google to piece together what I have said from various sources throughout time.

One final edit, although I assume everybody already knows this... if you are running an alternative handheld operating system (Linux, Symbian, ... err... Blackberry... thing...) then of course chime in.

http://www.discoverblackberry.com/devices/device-detail.jsp?navId=H0,C63,P101

I don't know what it is about them but I just think Blackberries are awesome.

khiloa said:

http://www.discoverblackberry.com/devices/device-detail.jsp?navId=H0,C63,P101

I don't know what it is about them but I just think Blackberries are awesome.

Click to expand...

Awesome, no. Capable of doing email, contacts, and a calendar, yes. Notice that they mention the xscale processor but not the speed. That's because it's around 150mhz or so.

GPS is now working on my Axim and even after adding a half a gig of maps I still have 3 1/2 gb left (2gb CF, 2gb SD). It has 192mb built in. There are so many applications and games available that I don't know where to start. I can download tons of movies and TV shows to watch. Not to mention webcasts. Frankly the webcasts are tough to follow because, as good as the screen is, a full screen of demo code is just too small to view clearly. But I can listen to them.

Now all I need is a handlebar mount so I can watch the GPS as I bike along. That's got to be pretty dangerous. Watching the GPS as I bike into the side of a bus. Ouch.

I like WM for the applications available for it, but I've been thinking about trying Linux.

Neither. Linux is even better.
I'm actually waiting for Linux for my PDA. I may actually help out in the effort!

What model Axim do you have? I have an iPaq h3955 and an Axim X5. I found a site where someone got Linux to run on an X5, but it used the RAM rather than the flash ROM. However, Linux for the iPaq's installs in the flash ROM so I'm scared of killing my PDA at the moment.

BTW, no offense to anyone, but the iPaq is a much better PDA than the X5 IMHO. The screen's better, the battery life is MUCH better, the joypad is better, and it's sleeker/ just feels better in my hand The only bad thing is that it lacks a built-in CF slot.

Dell_Axim said:

Neither. Linux is even better.

Click to expand...

Amen, brotha'!

Cyrix_2k said:

What model Axim do you have? I have an iPaq h3955 and an Axim X5. I found a site where someone got Linux to run on an X5, but it used the RAM rather than the flash ROM. However, Linux for the iPaq's installs in the flash ROM so I'm scared of killing my PDA at the moment.

BTW, no offense to anyone, but the iPaq is a much better PDA than the X5 IMHO. The screen's better, the battery life is MUCH better, the joypad is better, and it's sleeker/ just feels better in my hand The only bad thing is that it lacks a built-in CF slot.

Click to expand...

The X30 is so nice to me that I am having a hard time justifing an upgrade... although I have no CF slot...

Axim's aren't always the best devices. Personally I think the X5 is huge and has wayyy to much Dell branding...

If Linux was an option on any of my devices, I would consider it. Too bad it really isn't an option...

If/when I get a new PDA, I'd definately go for the CF slot.

khiloa said:

If/when I get a new PDA, I'd definately go for the CF slot.

Click to expand...

All I had was a CF modem... I thought I could pass up for a while.