Ed Colligan, in his Investor Day keynote today, announced Palm is releasing a new operating system later this year. As you can see by the nifty chart everyone is publishing (above), Palm is not moving toward windows, but turning on its blinker and making a right lane merge with Linux. More technically speaking, it will “combine aspects of Palm OS Garnet and a Linux core” as Palm Info Center writes. The shift was seen as a necessary move to provide a better user experience with a phone that can support instant booting, instant application switching, and better battery life at a lower cost. The new setup will also run Opera as the browser of choice. Despite the announcement, Palm will continue to also support Windows Mobile phones.

Sam James has Colligan’s full presentation.