PumpkinOS carves out a FOSS PalmOS-compatible runtime environment
(2024/04/11)
- Reference: 1712837706
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/04/11/pumpkin_os_foss_palmos/
- Source link:
PumpkinOS is a somewhat usable runtime environment that can run some Palm apps on top of Windows or Linux, without using or needing real PalmOS.
[1]PumpkinOS is not exactly a FOSS re-implementation of PalmOS, but it's something in that general direction. In some ways it's akin to the recreated Amiga OS AROS – a clean Free Software recreation of the old proprietary environment, without using any original code, that allows legacy apps to run. It's not a bare-metal OS, it runs on top of Windows or Linux, and provides a PalmOS-compatible environment in which original apps can run.
[2]Youtube Video
[3]
One impressive demo has it running on a cut-down Linux kernel [4]on a Raspberry Pi with a touchscreen . There are also other projects afoot to bring PalmOS to more modern kit that will fit in your pocket, which we will return to in a moment.
Don't go looking for your old Palm PDA in the phone drawer
You can't run PumpkinOS on vintage Palm hardware or indeed a modern pocket device to render it Palm compatible. However, there have been [5]tools to do that around for well over a decade now. The snag is that you need original Palm ROMs to make them work.
[6]Starting over: Rebooting the OS stack for fun and profit
[7]BlackBerry ripped itself apart wooing CIOs AND iPhone fanbois - insiders
[8]'Tis the season: Verizon first in line to flog Palm phone resurrection
[9]Ancient thumb-driven whirly-wheel smartmobe UI ported to Android
Although the PumpkinOS project has been around for a few years, it hasn't got to version 1.0, so manage your expectations. This is not a working product yet, but you can already use it to run some Palm apps. Developer [10]"Migueletto" has a [11]development blog in which they talk about the issues they are encountering during development, plus a [12]YouTube channel where you can see some video demonstrations.
[13]Video
Other revival efforts
Another remarkable effort in Palm and PalmOS reverse engineering is the [14]rePalm project by Russian developer [15]Dmitry Grinberg . Rather than a blog, the account of his efforts at working out how PalmOS 5 works under the hood, and finding ways to get it running on modern hardware, takes the form of a single huge and constantly growing article, but we reckon it's worth your time to read.
More visual types may enjoy browsing through his extensive [16]photo and video gallery . Among [17]many other projects , Grinberg is also working on [18]one called uARM , which aims to emulate several original Arm-powered Palm handhelds.
[19]
[20]
Grinberg told The Reg :
PumpkinOS is basically [21]WINE . It is a high level abstraction providing the same high level API. It will support well-behaved apps but it will never reach complete compatibility since any apps that stepped at all outside of the boundary of the official API (common in PalmOS) will hit corners.
uARM is [22]Bochs . It emulates complete actual hardware devices running completely unmodified ROMs – drivers, kernel, everything.
rePalm is closer to [23]ReactOS . It is a completely new kernel that can support the entire unmodified userspace and drivers.
The legacy
Since, as The Reg reported back in 2005, [24]Palm lost the plot nearly 20 years ago, there's a lot of loyalty to this long-dead platform. The company [25]considered using Symbian for its next-gen Arm-powered devices. (In the humble opinion of The Reg FOSS desk, that was one of the great missed opportunities of the last half-century in tech; it really should have happened, and might have saved both companies.)
Palm [26]later pondered Linux but neither panned out. In the end, a [27]PalmOS version 6 "Cobalt" did emerge, using some Be technology, and you can still [28]read an overview and [29]tech specs . However, although it got as far as version 6.1, as far as we know, nobody ever shipped any hardware running "Cobalt."
The eventual owner of both PalmSource and Be, the [30]Access Company , is still around and its [31]NetFront browser is used in the Kindle ebook readers and Nintendo Switch handheld console. As such, there's no real hope of any code being open sourced, and ground-up recreation is the only way to go. Palm's unrelated later effort, [32]webOS , is also still around and drives [33]LG smart TV sets . ®
Get our [34]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/migueletto/PumpkinOS
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngtxeEoBqp8
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZhgJGjWt3L4xvaWttn-BNwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pmig96.wordpress.com/2021/04/29/palmos-on-raspberry-pi/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2012/07/17/palmos_emulator/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/26/starting_over_rebooting_the_os/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2013/09/30/blackberry_bosses_bickered_while_rim_burned/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/29/palm_verizon_resurrection/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/13/else_releases_splay_port_android/
[10] https://twitter.com/pmig96
[11] https://pmig96.wordpress.com/category/palmos/
[12] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCenyvrWrgNjUqfgqhDuT0VQ
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttB0vgICPE
[14] http://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=27.%20rePalm
[15] https://dmitry.gr/?r=01.Myself&proj=09.Personal
[16] https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNO1WO00dVl6XzNbLmhpmb5b42AfpdCg0_S9HI4Z0G1eNEekzgwGtQgthlLOFEWDA?key=ZXpwNTBMbjBtZEVTdl9iWERGMnlEVjY5elE1UzV3
[17] https://dmitry.gr/
[18] https://github.com/uARM-Palm/uARM
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZhgJGjWt3L4xvaWttn-BNwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhgJGjWt3L4xvaWttn-BNwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.winehq.org/
[22] https://bochs.sourceforge.io/
[23] https://reactos.org/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2005/09/14/palmos_letters/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2002/07/08/palm_mulled_linux_for_nextgen/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2004/12/08/palmsource_linux/
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2002/10/30/palmos_6_details_emerge/
[28] http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/6568/palm-os-6-cobalt-overview-the-palm-os-future/
[29] https://www.palmsource.com/palmos/cobalt.html
[30] https://www.access-company.com/en/
[31] https://www.access-company.com/en/products/browser/
[32] https://www.webosose.org/
[33] https://www.lg.com/us/experience-tvs/smart-tv/use
[34] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
[1]PumpkinOS is not exactly a FOSS re-implementation of PalmOS, but it's something in that general direction. In some ways it's akin to the recreated Amiga OS AROS – a clean Free Software recreation of the old proprietary environment, without using any original code, that allows legacy apps to run. It's not a bare-metal OS, it runs on top of Windows or Linux, and provides a PalmOS-compatible environment in which original apps can run.
[2]Youtube Video
[3]
One impressive demo has it running on a cut-down Linux kernel [4]on a Raspberry Pi with a touchscreen . There are also other projects afoot to bring PalmOS to more modern kit that will fit in your pocket, which we will return to in a moment.
Don't go looking for your old Palm PDA in the phone drawer
You can't run PumpkinOS on vintage Palm hardware or indeed a modern pocket device to render it Palm compatible. However, there have been [5]tools to do that around for well over a decade now. The snag is that you need original Palm ROMs to make them work.
[6]Starting over: Rebooting the OS stack for fun and profit
[7]BlackBerry ripped itself apart wooing CIOs AND iPhone fanbois - insiders
[8]'Tis the season: Verizon first in line to flog Palm phone resurrection
[9]Ancient thumb-driven whirly-wheel smartmobe UI ported to Android
Although the PumpkinOS project has been around for a few years, it hasn't got to version 1.0, so manage your expectations. This is not a working product yet, but you can already use it to run some Palm apps. Developer [10]"Migueletto" has a [11]development blog in which they talk about the issues they are encountering during development, plus a [12]YouTube channel where you can see some video demonstrations.
[13]Video
Other revival efforts
Another remarkable effort in Palm and PalmOS reverse engineering is the [14]rePalm project by Russian developer [15]Dmitry Grinberg . Rather than a blog, the account of his efforts at working out how PalmOS 5 works under the hood, and finding ways to get it running on modern hardware, takes the form of a single huge and constantly growing article, but we reckon it's worth your time to read.
More visual types may enjoy browsing through his extensive [16]photo and video gallery . Among [17]many other projects , Grinberg is also working on [18]one called uARM , which aims to emulate several original Arm-powered Palm handhelds.
[19]
[20]
Grinberg told The Reg :
PumpkinOS is basically [21]WINE . It is a high level abstraction providing the same high level API. It will support well-behaved apps but it will never reach complete compatibility since any apps that stepped at all outside of the boundary of the official API (common in PalmOS) will hit corners.
uARM is [22]Bochs . It emulates complete actual hardware devices running completely unmodified ROMs – drivers, kernel, everything.
rePalm is closer to [23]ReactOS . It is a completely new kernel that can support the entire unmodified userspace and drivers.
The legacy
Since, as The Reg reported back in 2005, [24]Palm lost the plot nearly 20 years ago, there's a lot of loyalty to this long-dead platform. The company [25]considered using Symbian for its next-gen Arm-powered devices. (In the humble opinion of The Reg FOSS desk, that was one of the great missed opportunities of the last half-century in tech; it really should have happened, and might have saved both companies.)
Palm [26]later pondered Linux but neither panned out. In the end, a [27]PalmOS version 6 "Cobalt" did emerge, using some Be technology, and you can still [28]read an overview and [29]tech specs . However, although it got as far as version 6.1, as far as we know, nobody ever shipped any hardware running "Cobalt."
The eventual owner of both PalmSource and Be, the [30]Access Company , is still around and its [31]NetFront browser is used in the Kindle ebook readers and Nintendo Switch handheld console. As such, there's no real hope of any code being open sourced, and ground-up recreation is the only way to go. Palm's unrelated later effort, [32]webOS , is also still around and drives [33]LG smart TV sets . ®
Get our [34]Tech Resources
[1] https://github.com/migueletto/PumpkinOS
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngtxeEoBqp8
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZhgJGjWt3L4xvaWttn-BNwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pmig96.wordpress.com/2021/04/29/palmos-on-raspberry-pi/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2012/07/17/palmos_emulator/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/26/starting_over_rebooting_the_os/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2013/09/30/blackberry_bosses_bickered_while_rim_burned/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2018/03/29/palm_verizon_resurrection/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2013/05/13/else_releases_splay_port_android/
[10] https://twitter.com/pmig96
[11] https://pmig96.wordpress.com/category/palmos/
[12] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCenyvrWrgNjUqfgqhDuT0VQ
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ttB0vgICPE
[14] http://dmitry.gr/?r=05.Projects&proj=27.%20rePalm
[15] https://dmitry.gr/?r=01.Myself&proj=09.Personal
[16] https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNO1WO00dVl6XzNbLmhpmb5b42AfpdCg0_S9HI4Z0G1eNEekzgwGtQgthlLOFEWDA?key=ZXpwNTBMbjBtZEVTdl9iWERGMnlEVjY5elE1UzV3
[17] https://dmitry.gr/
[18] https://github.com/uARM-Palm/uARM
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZhgJGjWt3L4xvaWttn-BNwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZhgJGjWt3L4xvaWttn-BNwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://www.winehq.org/
[22] https://bochs.sourceforge.io/
[23] https://reactos.org/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2005/09/14/palmos_letters/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2002/07/08/palm_mulled_linux_for_nextgen/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2004/12/08/palmsource_linux/
[27] https://www.theregister.com/2002/10/30/palmos_6_details_emerge/
[28] http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/6568/palm-os-6-cobalt-overview-the-palm-os-future/
[29] https://www.palmsource.com/palmos/cobalt.html
[30] https://www.access-company.com/en/
[31] https://www.access-company.com/en/products/browser/
[32] https://www.webosose.org/
[33] https://www.lg.com/us/experience-tvs/smart-tv/use
[34] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Zippy´s Sausage Factory
Palms running Symbian? I'd have got one. I loved my Psion and nothing has been more user friendly, or useful, since. The iPhone basically combines all the bits into a phone but it's still clunky by comparison.
A superb platform
Philip Storry
I still occasionally miss my Palm devices.
I think my last one was a Tungsten III. A great device.
It was a great platform. It did just enough as an OS, and had a great interface which many seem to have since "been inspired by"... even if they'd never admit it.
But what I miss more was the software. Being mostly disconnected meant that the focus for developers was different. I had entire database systems on my Palm - I think the one I used most was called ThinkDB - so could build my own little solutions. It was superb. Not too expensive either.
With a smartphone that's always on, the incentive is to keep everything online and then get you subscribed to cover the costs of hosting and development. And whilst each individual solution might be a bit slicker and a little bit better, I miss the flexibility. The Palm felt like a perfect halfway mark between only-at-the-desk and access-from-anywhere.
I know it's partly rose-tinted glasses, but the fact that I was doing things on my Palm 15 years ago that I can barely do today says such a lot to me.
But then again, I've changed the way I'd solve those problems, and the world has moved on. I wouldn't go back.
But I would like to see some people be "inspired by" Palm OS a bit more...
My parents still have Palm TX devices, which they use to play Bookworm on.
I've slowly got them over to Steam Decks and the x86 versions, though.