The Access Linux Platform, sometime referred to as a "next-generation version of the Palm OS" is an open source-based operating system for mobile devices developed and marketed by Access Co., of Tokyo, Japan. The platform includes execution environments for Java, classic Palm OS, and GTK+-based native Linux applications. ALP has been demonstrated in devices at a variety of conferences, including 3GSM, LinuxWorld, GUADEC, and Open Source in Mobile.

The Access Linux Platform was first announced in February 2006. The initial versions of the platform and software development kits for the Access Linux Platform were officially released in February 2007. As of November 2007, the Access Linux Platform has yet to ship on devices, however development kits exists and public demonstrations have been showcased. A handset based on the Access Linux Platform will reportedly be released by the European carrier Orange in the first half of 2008, and there is a current effort between Access, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, NEC, and Esteemo to use the platform as a basis for a "shared platform" implementing a revised version of the i.mode MOAP(L) APIs, as well as conforming to the specifications of the LiMo Foundation.

Look and feel

The user interface is designed with similar general goals to earlier Palm OS releases, with an aim of preserving the Zen of Palm, a design philosophy that revolves around making the applications as simple as they can be. Other aspects of the interface include a task-based orientation rather than a file/document orientation as is commonly found on desktop systems.

The appearance of the platform is intended to be extremely customizable to provide differentiation for specific devices and contexts.

Base frameworks

Similarly to maemo (Nokia's internet tablet framework), ALP is based on components drawn from the GNOME project, including the GTK+ and GStreamer frameworks. A variety of other core components are drawn from mainstream open source projects, including BlueZ, matchbox, cramfs, and others. These components are licensed under the GPL, LGPL, and other open source licenses, meaning that ALP is a "free" or "open" environment on the software level.

A number of components from ALP have been themselves released under the Mozilla Public License as The Hiker Project. These components address issues of application life-cycle, intertask communication, exchange and use of structured data, security, time and event-based notifications, and other areas common to the development of applications for mobile devices.

Application development

As a fairly standard Linux/open source-based system, the Access Linux Platform presents standard APIs for most common operations (as defined by the POSIX and LSB standards). Since neither POSIX nor LSB address areas such as telephony, device customization, messaging, etc., there are a number of additional frameworks and APIs defined by Access for these areas.