It is so sad to see an Operating System die, particularly one which has been around for so long, and which I’ve grown with and even written programs for.  I’m not referring to Windows XP, but to the Palm OS for handheld computers and smartphones. Some would say that it has been dead or dying for some time. When a Operating System dies, it seems that the software development tools start dying first. A week or so back I logged onto a website of a Palm OS development tool I’ve used to be dismayed at the news that the website and the forums were closing down soon.

The Palm Operating System’s replacement is the Palm webOS as featured in the Palm Pre. At present there is only one smartphone being sold by Palm which still runs the Palm OS – the Palm Centro. With Palm (the company) it is hard to tell how long the Centro will be around. On the Palm website, the Centro is referred to as “Access Powered“, but that merely means “Running Palm Operating System licensed from Access, previously known as PalmSource”.

If the Palm Centro was to be killed off tomorrow, and the Palm OS was officially dead,  people would continue to use Palm OS devices, from old Sony Clies to Tapwave Zodiacs.

Even though the iPhone is getting more useful with each firmware release, I’m still using a Tungsten C which runs Palm OS, while moving to a Treo 680, which also runs Palm OS. Of course, if the Palm Pre or another webOS based smartphone comes to Verizon, I would take a good hard look at it.

This week I finally canceled the monthly voice and data plan on my T-Mobile G1. It was just getting too expensive to have it and the iPhone.

This was before hearing about the T-Mobile G2 which is rumored to be coming out in July – I first heard about it from a Blog Entry by Keith “Next Generation Android Phone Out” on the Gottahave Blog.

Unfortunately, the G2 or HTC Magic, drops the one thing which made the T-Mobile G1 one of the more viable alternatives to the iPhone – the hardware keyboard. Now the slide out keyboard of the G1 has been criticized by reviewers since day one. The fact is, I would rate it better than any of the Palm smartphone keyboards – and from what I hear the Palm Pre’s keyboard is just too small. The keyboard may add at least a third to the thickness of the G1, but it is by no means a brick.

My only real gripe with the G1 is that you must have a Gmail account to activate it. Using it without a cellular data plan – which prevents the phone verifying your Gmail account, even if you are on Wi-Fi, disables the Android Marketplace (equivalent of the iTunes Store) and several other features on the device. That really sucks.

I’ve considered just using the T-Mobile G1 as a portable internet browsing device, as its browser is pretty good. It is a difficult choice between the G1 and the N810 Internet Tablet, which has an even better hardware keyboard.