Palm OS is dead. Long live Garnet OS!

This whole PalmSource vs. PalmOne business has just about everyone confused, but the long and short of it is that the company that owns the operating system is separate from the company that builds and sells the physical PDA phones. In an effort to differentiate its brand from the hardware maker, Access (formerly PalmSource) has decided to rename the current operating system (Palm OS) to Garnet OS. In this way, they can more freely sell the platform to other handset makers without being tied to PalmOne and PalmOne-branded devices.

What’s more, Access is still working on its next-generation mobile operating system, which will be based heavily on the open-source Linux platform (maybe they should join the party). They’re not all that creative with its name at the moment — Access Linux Platform — but who knows? It might end up as Garnet OS 2 or something.