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Access picked up development of the Palm OS with the purchase of PalmSource in 2005, announcing the following year that it would be replacing the five-year-old operating system with a new Linux-based platform.

The Access Linux Platform, as it was titled, contains three runtime environments: its native Linux, as well as Java and GHost, a Garnet virtual machine (VM) that enables ALP devices to run legacy Palm OS applications.

That VM will now be available to users of Nokia's internet tablets - the N810 [pictured], N800 and N770, providing them with more than 30,000 applications

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such as Google Maps, Documents To Go - for opening Office files - and games.

"This reinforces the value of Garnet OS-based applications to consumers and creates an all-around win: it will allow Nokia users to access the thousands of great applications running under Garnet OS; it will give our loyal developers a larger installed base of devices; and it will enable Access to fine-tune Garnet VM based on customer feedback," says Didier Diaz, senior vice president product strategy management, Access Systems Americas.

The Garnet VM is scheduled to be released by the end of the year, free of charge. Beta versions are available from access-company.com/products/gvm.

Palm, the separate company that makes Treo and Centro smartphones running the Palm OS, is also developing its own Linux-based platform, though it admitted last month that the new OS is at least 18 months away.

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