HP Delays WebOS Decision 77
itwbennett writes "Following Tuesday's report that HP is looking to sell WebOS, CEO Meg Whitman and HP employees gathered for a late-afternoon meeting. According to The Verge, Whitman told those gathered at the meeting 'It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,' adding that a decision would come in the next three to four weeks."
The HP Way (Score:4, Insightful)
"a decision would come in the next three to four weeks".. and then a reverse decision every three to four weeks thereafter.
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"a decision would come in the next three to four weeks".. and then a reverse decision every three to four weeks thereafter.
I wonder if the decision process will outlast Meg's tenure at HP.
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So Sad (Score:2)
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I don't know. I disagree with Meg Whitman's politics, but I think she's got a good shot at this.
Then again, the whole thing could go under even if they had the best managers ever steering the ship because the damage is already done.
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Whatever makes you think she is a good manager?
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Whatever makes you think she is a good manager?
What makes you think the GP thinks she is a good manager?
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I'm not saying she's a good manager, just looking over her history at eBay, it wasn't that bad and she seemsn better than Apoetheker. Well, let's face it, slime on a rock face would be better. Still.
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Someone in a coma would have done a much better job than Apoetheker.
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Steve Jobs considered her a 'bozo'. When Jobs got rid of the Apple board in 1997, she was suggested to him as a member of the new board, he declined.
Cursed? (Score:2)
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Palm may have bought BeOS, but webOS is built upon Linux with a fairly standard GNU userland with a few proprietary bits and toolkit centered around HTML/CSS/JS (along with a native devkit.)
It'd be a steal for Samsung/Intel if they could snag it and open it up as part of Tizen. Squeeze out some efficiencies on ARM (and the native toolkits to boot) and leave the GUI a blank slate, and they'd have a ready to use platform that was fully open source at all phases of dev
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Somehow it all seems cursed. Assuming it has vestigial BeOS bits in it
Nope, Access owns BeOS [wikipedia.org]. They used the multimedia bits in their Access Linux platform [wikipedia.org].
Where you're right is that both BeOS & PalmOS have a long history of being championed by companies unable to gain sufficient for their technology...
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There's a smarter decision.. (Score:2)
open-source it, and license it freely as with Android. This will attract developers and grow the market for WebOS devices. It will do much more to remove doubts about the longevity of the platform, because it will no longer be in any one company's hands.
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Sell WebOS. Even if HP decides that the OS has a solid strategic future, their release of the TouchPad only to can it in under two months will raise significant doubts in the mind of customers and developers.
What makes you think WebOS would be an attractive buy for anyone? Palm and HP both bungled it. It's hard for me to imagine some other company picking up the ball and running with it.
Can we stop caring already? (Score:1)
WebOS user (Score:2)
As a WebOS user on the Palm phone, I will be sad if it dies. It seems a decent OS, and the only complaint I have about the phone is its hardware (bad keyboard, short battery life).
Any other users here?
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The homebrewers had a virtual keyboard available not that long after the original launch of the Pre.
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No, freezing was a problem with a beta Palm virtual keyboard in WebOS 2.0 for the Pre2, which was not enabled in the release versions of 2.0 (because it was broke) but homebrewers figured out how to enable. Not a problem in the original homebrew virtual keyboard of the Pre-/+ (maxed at 1.4.5) that I'm talking about.
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Jean Louis Gassée, ex-employee and creator of (Score:5, Interesting)
Turning to HP, this week was their Board’s opportunity to solidify its reputation for incompetence and bad manners. They rose to the occasion.
http://www.mondaynote.com/2011/09/25/how-bad-boards-kill-companies-hp/ [mondaynote.com]
... BeOS (Score:2)
Someone fix /. already.
PS. Gassée's blog is the best I've read.
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Thanks for posting that! I always liked Gassée and was wondering what he'd got up to.
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You're welcome - I'm glad I had people to share it with. I have zero geek friends, even on FB.
His posts on Apple have been great. He talks about Apples' BeOS vs Jobs decision with humility too.
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Another "me too": Thank you! Some great articles there
e.g.
This one reveals some interesting history between True Type -- Apple licensed TrueType FREE to Microsoft!?
http://www.mondaynote.com/2010/04/11/the-adobe-apple-flame-war/ [mondaynote.com]
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Perfect quote. Thanks for that link, made great reading. Interesting site, as well.
Credit where due, at least Meg's almost on record about wanting to make a right decision. Could be a first. She seems to have been saying some of the right things recently (appearing thoughtful, balanced, realistic); it remains to see what comes of that.
D'you happen to know of a good study on why any innovative, successful company ends up a bad board? It doesn't seem to be a rare occurrence.
The Verge (Score:1)
Have you guys seen theverge.com ?
For a bunch of geeks who left whatever site the left, in some sort of righteous exodus, they sure put together one shitty looking site.
I don't think I'll ever go back there again.
Total visual cacophony. Or cacorasi. I DON'T KNOW GREEK.
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Who cares? (Score:1)
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What she meant: (Score:2)
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But this is the wrong decision (Score:2)
If they had a lick of sense, they'd give that a shot.
But they don't. And they won't.
Android really needs some competition...(and no, that crappy iOS doesn't count--I mean real, proper, open source OS competition).
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there are so many companies making so much money off of open source..
Red Hat, Oracle and IBM are making plenty of money of FOSS Linux. Almost all of Google's future revenue stream would be at threat without Android (since Apple and Microsoft would love to lock them out of the market) I think you would find that there are quite a bit of benefits from controlling the fundamental platform that others build on.
they paid $1.2 billion for WebOS....
The fact that you even mention the money they paid shows that you have no clue. Please look up, learn about and fully accept sunk costs [wikipedia.org]. The existence of Android means
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But no, I'm sure your plan is much better.
...and I wouldn't have said it was a good idea to pay a billion dollars for WebOS!
HP Customer? Not hardly. (Score:2)
I bought a Veer, which I like but which also has some pretty blindingly obvious bugs and deficits. HP announced the WebOS hit 3 days after I bought this device. Pretty simple; if HP really abandons my brand-new phone them I'm not buying another HP product again, ever. They did the same thing to my OfficeJet 5500, fine, but only after I'd had it for five years. Not 3 bloody days.
John Gruber said it best (Score:2)
Its a shame (Score:2)
'It's really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,' adding that a decision would come in the next three to four weeks."
Its a shame they didn't know that before killing the touchpad ... announcing that they are leaving the PC business ..... announcing that they are not leaving it ... and so on
Sigh. I hate being late to the party . . . (Score:2)
I'm posting this as probably one of the last people who was still using a Palm Pilot. I only recently quit using my Palm Pilot because of the d--n Touchpad that I bought for next to nothing. I'm not in any way an HP fan, but this whole thing has me so disappointed. Let me get this straight, when I finally get ready to upgrade to a smartphone the nice OS that I've grown to love on the tablet that I bought on the cheap is probably dead? Maybe. Are you f--king kidding me? I buy one of your tablets (Thanks, Apo
Another bad move! (Score:1)