OS5 vs OS6

[Yuriv]

So far I have not been to concerned about waiting for OS6, but all of the discussion about the matter in relation to the TH55 has got me thinking.

My T665 remains trustworthy and useful for work and play (still the reigning champ for best design ever in my mind). One of the main reasons for this is that, despite it using the "outdated" OS4, there are SO MANY apps available for it.

However, my understanding is that this isn't the case for OS5. Am I right in believing that a lot of OS4 apps will not work properly on an OS5 machine? (Or is this only the case for hacks, with other apps running fine?)

Similarly, I understand that OS6 will be a major rewrite of the Palm OS, meaning that it will not necessarily be backwards compatible with OS5 or OS4 programs. Can anyone confirm this?

The bottom line then, is that OS5 machines could end up stranded with only a limited number of apps that have been developed in the 1 year or so that it has been available. If anyone has more info on this issue please let me know.

[cbulock]

While OS6 is going to be a major rewrite, so was OS5. They did a really good job making applications backwards compatible using an emulator called PACE which runs most older apps without you ever knowing they are running in an emulation mode. It's true that hacks don't work in OS5, though some will work if you have TealMaster. All of the popular apps that had any incompatibility issues have been updated to support OS5 now. So, the upgrade process should be pretty smooth. OS6 will feature the same PACE system so any app that runs on OS5 should, in theory, also run on OS6 trouble free. While it's true that no one has seen OS6 in action and can't really say how the compatibility is going to be, I believe PalmSource will do everything it can to assure that most apps will still run fine on the new system since the large library of applications is one of the big strengths of the Palm platform.

[gklinger]

It is my understanding that PalmSource is adopting a new 'dual-headed' strategy and will continue to develop/improve OS 5 as well as OS 6, aiming them at different markets. There was an interesting and illuminating article (http://news.com.com/2100-1045_3-5152914.html) about this at C|Net's News.com. I have been putting off buying a new Palm/Clie until a unit with OS 6 is released but now I'm starting to think I would be better off buying something with the specifications I want and worrying less about the OS. All of that said, I was very intrigued by the pictures (http://www.palminfocenter.com/ss.asp?f=possible_palm_os6_ss_l.jpg) of what OS 6 might look like (I'm still salivating).