HP Making webOS Open Source

Several readers sent word of HP's announcement that the company will be contributing webOS to the open source community. According to HP's press release, they will continue to be active in webOS's development, and one of their goals will be to avoid fragmentation. ENYO, the application framework for webOS, will also go open source in the near future.

A few billion to acquire it, then open source it?!

[jpstanle]

Doesn't make much business sense, but at least the community can actually benefit from HP's blunders this time.

Re:A few billion to acquire it, then open source i

[Anonymous Coward]

The current CEO is not the same person who purchased Palm (that'd be Hurd), and they're not even the person who fumbled the ball (that'd be Apotheker). Meg Whitman seems to be actually trying to sort out the mess left by the last two, and if that includes cutting the loses on WebOS then so be it.

Re:best of both worlds?

[Anonymous Coward]

Two points:

1. They still employ the software side of the WebOS team. The only people who were laid off were the hardware guys.
2. They've already said they're looking at Windows 7 or Windows 8 for their next tablet.

Re:What to buy?

[naranek]

The preferred phone is Pre 3. I have one and it's ... well ... nice. Really nice. Not the superphone of my dreams, but really nice, and it's open. The webOS is marvelous, but there are a lot of kinks and small unpolished bits that are kind of annoying in the long run. I'm hoping opensourcing the OS will help fix those. The hardware isn't as good as I've been used to with Nokia phones, but it's nice never the less. The best points are the hardware keyboard and excellent design. The round shapes make it a unique piece of tech, and it fits in the pocket like no other, because everything's rounded. And did I mention it's open. People have been writing patches for years to improve the built in functionalities in all sorts of cool ways, so you get to customise it the way you like. OK now this is starting to sound like a pitch. I better stop.

Re:Thanks but no thanks

[Kenshin]

webOS isn't HP's baby. They just adopted it when they bought Palm.

Meego is already there.

[Colin Smith]

Rooting an N9
Settings -> security -> developer mode

Re:Does this mean....

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Android likely has an unassailable lead in application availability; but I know that WebOS's superior windowing/'card/swipe' gesture system made me feel like I was kicking a puppy by comparing a XOOM to a TouchPad...

I'm not sure that it would matter quite as much at phone-screen sizes; but the comparison at 10 inches was pretty stark.

Re:Meego is already there.

[markdavis]

And WebOS was/is also "rooted" on all devices. You just clicked on developer mode. Done.

It had been that day from day one.