Palm, Inc.'s new chairman, Jon Rubinstein, has revealed in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that Palm is still 18 months away from launching a new Linux-based OS. This means a new Palm OS will not hit the streets until sometime in 2009.

Rubinstein's statement seems to contradict earlier statements by CEO Ed Colligan who said he expected the OS to be out by the end of 2008. It looks like Palm has pushed back their OS launch by 6 months or so.