HP Making the webOS Open Source, Prepping New Devices Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

HP's CEO announced today a new course for webOS: it is being made open source, and HP engineers and any developers who are interested will keep updating and improving it. The company even plans to release new devices with this operating system.

Read the full content of this Article: HP Making the webOS Open Source, Prepping New Devices

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• HP Lays Off Hundreds of Former Palm Employees
• Microsoft Converting webOS Developers to Windows Phone

[scjjtt]

I think that this could be quite exciting. I bought a new non-contract Pixi Plus for $40 and used it for about a month during the time of switching carriers from Verizon to Sprint. To me the OS was so incredible and I would fine myself picking that phone up and using it on the wifi at home after it wasn't activated over my Samsung Epic 4g. I hope for the best for this OS.

Here is a link indicating that someone has already put WebOS on an Evo 3D. I'm not 100% convinced - but hopeful. If this becomes a reality - I'll switch as soon as I can and put WebOS on my phone.

[hal]

I have mixed opinions about this announcement. It still sounds like HP giving up on WebOS, but instead of selling it, kinda giving it away. With the loose expectation that the LOT.OF.MONEY. that HP put into Palm, a portion of which was regarding WebOS, is money that will eventually return profit by means not yet clear, not even to them. For the kind of money they put up front, I still wonder if this is not just a broom sweep regarding something no one at HP figured out fairly good.

I have a bittersweet opinion about open source. Sometimes it brings up a lot of development, and sometimes it's just a coffin going down slowly. In a reflection, if Palm OS Garnet would have been made open source around 2008, I bet it would still be stalling while waiting for a sound crash. The enhancements needed to improve such a platform for the current times, would need so much development that it would still be dying, only slower.

WebOS as open source sounds like a straight competition towards Android, on a platform that has attested excellent user experience but poor side development. I think that HP's statement in that WebOS is "the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable", is too presumptuous. The same can be said about Android and iOS, and BB OS perhaps. And of all, it's WebOS which still has to turn out successful.

[scjjtt]

Hal,

Very well stated - there's nothing you wrote that I disagree with. I'm just hoping for the best - maybe WebOS on an HTC?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

[hal]

Hal,

Very well stated - there's nothing you wrote that I disagree with. I'm just hoping for the best - maybe WebOS on an HTC?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

I forgot to add, Scott, that after my observations about open source, and about HP's current strategies, I also think that WebOS can survive. I understand why the user base can keep enthusiastic about it, and I really hope that there's a development community willing to take over.

On one hand, opening the source code sometimes doesn't make a difference. When Symbian went open source, AFAIK nothing relevant happened, until Nokia took over the Symbian Foundation, produced a series of successful smartphones, and eventually all its Symbian stamina played itself out.

OTOH, open source or similar environments can really pull improvements on a platform. Back in the 1990's when engineering calculators were at their historical peak, HP produced the very successful HP 48 series. AFAIK, HP never open-sourced the OS of this platform, but it gave it a very similar treatment. HP never pulled very much of a muscle developing it... I mean HP itself. Instead, a very strong developing community surfaced and it took over HP's initial effort, and this corporation nurtured it. To a point, at the late 1990's, when HP started the project of, say, the ultimate engineering calculator, it picked the specialists to design it, and code the OS, from that community, instead of choosing an in-house team. That's how the HP49g was created. Even the desktop shell, purposed to sync data among a PC and the device, was not created at HP, but by an enthusiast. These calculators have been gradually confined to closed segments, not due to the lack of development, but rather because of the computing evolution in other platforms. As of the WebOS, let's hope then that a developing community can be enforced and nurtured by HP, just like they did with the HP48/49 calculators. HP is not very good in several fields, but it's good in creating this type of developing rings.

[Ed Hardy]

I was hoping a company, like maybe HTC, would buy webOS and start making smartphones and tablets with it, but I knew that was a long shot. The attention of a majority of consumers is on Android and iOS, and there's not much room for other competitors. Even long-established alternatives, such as BlackBerry, are having a hard time going up against Google and Apple. The potential buyers knew this, and decided it wasn't worth the millions it would cost to even try.

Making webOS open source is a bit better than just putting it on a shelf and letting it die. There's the potential that developers and device makers will get interested and keep it alive. Here at Brighthand we'll certainly keep an eye on it.
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[LandSurveyor]

As I read this on my Touchpad, I can't help but hope that some sort of development will continue. Maybe if it's free, somebody less wishy-washy than HP will try it in a conventional smartphone.

I'm also glad to hear they plan to produce more tablets but I've heard their next Touchpad will use Windows 8?

[r0k]

I think this is great news. I'm looking forward to seeing webOS claw its way out of the "grave". The last time I looked, you could still get a Touchpad for around $200 from investors that bought them during the fire sale so they could sell them at a profit. I played with one briefly and I was very impressed. If I didn't already have an iPad, I'd definitely be looking at a Touchpad especially now that the OS isn't going to be put to death by HP.

I see this announcement as part of a trend where HP is walking away from the abyss Apotheker tried to lead them into. HP might even eventually start making webOS Touchpads again if they can figure out how to make a profit at $200. At that price, the Touchpad kicks the Kindle Fire's butt.

As for Win 8 on a Touchpad? I'm sure it's something HP will try. I just hope they keep their webOS options open as well. I've played with Win 8, Kindle Fire, BB Playbook, iPad (mine) and even the "transformer". So far, I like iOS and WebOS the best.

[LandSurveyor]

This from an industry paper:
HP to make webOS open source, plans webOS tablets in 2013 - FierceWireless

With yet another brief mention about Windows 8.

[hal]

Making webOS open source is a bit better than just putting it on a shelf and letting it die. There's the potential that developers and device makers will get interested and keep it alive. Here at Brighthand we'll certainly keep an eye on it.
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Yes, a bit. OK worse that this would be HP keeping WebOS to itself, for nothing, or for a low dissemination rate, I can't deny that.

IMO, I think that HTC must have also turned down the offer cause WebOS doesn't currently add a single competitive edge to their success. They're running a tremendous business, but as they drop the ODM ball and enforce a catalog of their own, I'm pretty sure they're trying to hold on to each and every penny they've got, instead of betting on wildcards.

I think that WebOS must really be a terrific OS/platform, but in these days, you gotta have much more than a functional OS to make it. If you put say the top 3 OSs and try to benchmark amongst, lessay searching for a single segment of purpose (entertainment, productivity, comms interaction, etc., I mean just picking any), there will be lots of apps and accessories. Can the same thing be done with WebOS, provided that developers have ditched it from their efforts? Today, no. So HTC would be purchasing a platform, for all things, yet to be developed and nurtured.