I am the happy owner of a new Palm Pre Plus. First off, I would like to thank HP and/or Palm for the Data Export Tool that gave me a way to transfer the information out of my old Palm Desktop. I still have some information that was originally entered using a Palm IIIx. In today's world, it's almost freaky to have had useful information survive across completely different handhelds, multiple versions of both Windows and OSX and never have had a problem with any data loss or transfer. 

   However, it seems that the Palm Desktop is finally being retired. While I can retain some functionality with my on-line Yahoo account, this is  distinctly limited compared to the Palm Desktop. Therefore, I would like to propose an alternative you may wish to consider.

   I would like to see a new Palm (or I guess HP) Desktop program developed. Build it around an existing Opensource HTML editor. This would not need to be full-featured WYSIWYG editor, but a simple editor with preloaded templates for an Address Book entry, Calender page, To Do list and Memos. All data would be outputted in HTML format, with a master Index Page, and links between individual pages as needed. Although this would easily allow more elaborate formatting of, for instance, Memos, the objective should be to keep everything as simple as possible.

   If you make the desktop program Open Source, and strive to make it cross-platform (possibly written in Java?), then you wouldn't need to maintain it forever. Get together with Sourceforge.net, and/or document the program and make it easy for anyone to update or modify it as needed for future expansion and use on other devices. Try to establish some good standards for where specific information needs to be located/formatted (for the WebOS to find phone numbers to dial, etc). If you make it useful, somebody will keep it, or some variation of it, going for years.

Since the output would be simple HTML, the database would already be cross-platform and usable by any device with a web browser. Simpler devices could "sync" data by just comparing file names and dates to copy back and forth. More advanced devices could include basic HTML editors to make changes on their own (although basic changes could be made by any text editor and a knowledge of HTML).

   The overall objective would be to create a standard desktop organizer that would run on most any OS (minimally Windows, OSX and Linux) and whose output could be read by anything with a web browser. Like the old Palm Desktop, it would give people a place to store personal information in a format that would outlive any individual device or OS. This data could be kept private, shared across company intra-nets or posted on-line as desired. The database created would be stored in one folder (per user) and be totally portable, or could be secured by whatever encryption program your OS already has.

   The system would almost certainly be copied by others and expanded to include additional uses as well. This is a Good Thing. Minimally, a cross platform PIM system that can be used by multiple devices would benefit everyone in the long run.