Recently, I became a pretty strong Linux convert, dreading going back to my Windows based laptop, and considering the difficult task of moving it over to Ubuntu Linux as well, but I am not the only one interested in using Linux, big companies are really starting to take notice, and Palm has announced that it plans to deliver a new Linux and open source based mobile platform sometime later this year.

There are not many details about their announcement as of yet, but Palm Chief Executive Ed Colligan did say that the reason for the switch is to improve the user experience and adding greater hardware flexibility. Some people have noted that the Palm OS hasn’t been the best at handling the growing needs of mobile clients to support multimedia and a diverse range of applications.

This is also a growing trend due to licensing fees, of which Linux has none, and so that helps companies continue to price their products competitively while still giving us the features that we all want.

Tech News World cites a recent ABI report that suggests Linux will make up 14 percent of the mobile OS market by 2012.

Seems like a win-win for everyone.