Access says Palm touched its OS

MOBILE LINUX ghost-OS and micro-browsers firm Access Systems told the INQUIRER there will be no Netfront 3.5 browser for Palm devices unless Palm requests it, and that Palm has fiddled with its Garnet OS.

Since we read on the firm's web page over here about all the greatness and virtues of the Netfront Mobile Browser version 3.5, and since it lists "Garnet OS" as one of the supported platforms, we asked the firm if Palm OS users – for instance, owners of Palm's popular Centro – could get that 3.5 browser core in a Palm OS version (or Garnet OS as the firm likes to call it now).

The answer was a polite yet predictable 'no'. What was a bit unexpected was one of the excuses cited for not offering the latest-greatest version of the firm's flagship product ported to run on, well, one of the firm's own operating systems, Garnet ... the argument that Palm has fiddled with the OS code.

A 2005 third party web browser, Xiino, here installed and running on the Palm Centro

In case you haven't been keeping track, Access, the Japanese software firm known for its Netfront browser, bought PalmSource some time ago. Then by late 2006 Palm Inc acquired a perpetual license for Access' Garnet OS, with the right to tweak and fix it on its own.

Our question to Access was direct: "The Netfront core used in the Centro's Blazer browser version 4.5.8 is, we suspect, not comparable to the Netfront 3.5 core used in the Windows Mobile version... are there any plans to get the latest greatest Netfront v3.5 browser backported to Garnet OS ?".

We expected a miracle. But you know miracles are hard to come by.

The next day, a miracle reached our inbox, but it was Pam Miracle, Access Systems' PR contact in the US. She said that Palm Inc should request an update if they want it. We guess that means paying for it as well.

"Access generally does not make available updates to the NetFront Browser unless the manufacturer specifically requests this from us," added Miracle. " This is because there is usually some level of support required by the manufacturer to make this possible."

And then, the surprise: "Moreover, in this case, we would not be able to do this unless requested by Palm, since they have made changes to the original OS. "

Does the extent of the changes made by Palm after they licensed Garnet OS from Access make both systems incompatible?. It's very unlikely in our view. In fact, applications coded for ancient OS versions keep working just fine in today's Palm Centro, for instance.

Just to play devil's advocate, we downloaded and installed an old Interweb-centric mobile application, a web browser no less: Xiino version 3.4.1E from the apparently defunct Russian company MobiRus, released three years ago before Access came into play to buy PalmSource.

The result: it works just fine today on Palm's "tweaked" OS in the Centro. In fact, while doing this we realised this ancient mobile browser has one killer feature that puts Blazer to shame: a handy "connect" and "disconnect" button at the lower-right corner of the screen. Blazer, for instance, would connect automagically to GPRS without asking the user if he wants to do so or not.

Pam Miracle concluded, "At this point we have no plans to offer a standalone browser for Palm." So if you're hoping to get a full Netfront browser for your Treo 6xx / 700p or Centro, you better look at other options... namely Open Source software.

There has been an effort going on for quite some time to get Apple's WebKit ported to Palm OS and we're supposed to hear exciting news about this new mobile browser for Palm OS soon.

Stay tuned.µ