Now you tell us.

That's a fair reaction to word last week from Palm CEO Ed Colligan that the Treo maker will finally, after years of rumor, speculation, and general procrastination, develop a new version of its Garnet operating system based on a Linux kernel.

This has been predicted for years, but it raises key questions and doubts. One relates to the company Access, formerly PalmSource, which owns the Garnet platform--Palm only licenses it. Colligan's overdue move to Linux comes two months after Access released a Linux-based mobile operating system of its own. So, let's get this straight: Now there will be two versions of the Palm OS based on Linux, only one of which is actually owned by Palm itself? Meanwhile, Palm will continue to push Treos running the Windows Mobile platform as well. And this is the "new foundation" for Palm, which has been the subject of acquisition rumors for months?

Palm faces intense competition both from Research In Motion--whose BlackBerry continues to dominate enterprise smartphones and whose consumer-oriented Pearl released last fall has been a hit--and manufacturers such as Nokia, the world's No. 1 mobile phone maker, which just released a high-end multimedia device, the $750 N95 (see story, Nokia One-Ups Apple With $750 Smartphone). Palm's update of the outmoded Palm OS feels like too little, too late.