MISKINIX

MISKINIX is a multi-tasking "OS" and Windowing System for Palm OS-based handhelds that I created for PALM Computing devices between 2002-2004, shortly after the first color version of a Palm OS-based handheld was released.

The stock, default Palm Computing user interface did not really take advantage of the full color capability of the machine, and also was a single-tasking operating system. The applications and icons in the launcher were mostly based on line-drawing style graphics. My intent was to offer more of a UNIX-like environment and customizable desktop.

I had named it MISKINIX, since the word was very unique, and Google returned 0 hits on my web search. It is compatible with all color Palm OS 3.0 devices and above. Earlier monochrome devices were also supported in 4-level grayscale, but a separate and different version was produced and required, for memory saving and efficiency.

This demo version is not very useful for anything other than demonstrating the proof of concept, and allowed me to gather feedback and share with a small user base back then, in order to ensure that it functioned on a myriad of devices, such as the Treo, some Sony handhelds, the various Palm Computing models, and I maintained a user forum back then to facilitate all of this work on the endeavor.

Available below is version 6, which was a modular architecture, and allowed "plugins" applications to be installed. Older versions were a monolithic system, in which applications, the graphical environment, and multi-tasking "OS" was all encapsulated into one program entity.


Compatibility

Device:All
OS:3.03.54.05.05.4
 (*Based on user feedback. Login to submit)


Download

VersionFileSize
6.0 miskinix_6.zip24K

Submitted on June 20, 2023 by

My name is John Miskinis, and I reside in Massachusetts within the USA. I have been heavily interested in computers, both software and hardware, since (Approx.) 1974, at which time I began my research for an 8th grade English class term paper, ...

Additional Editors