HP Turns WebOS Open Source, Could Offer Manufacturers Alternative to Android

[rmwebs]

Well but webOS itself is protected by apparently over 2000 patents:

http://scobleizer.com/2011/08/21/hps-2000-webos-patents-and-how-they-could-reshape-everything/

Let's wait and see which open source license HP chooses for this, but I would be very surprised if they just give away all those patents...

They might just say, here's all the code - BUT if you want to make a phone from it you'll need to get in touch and license our patents.

Very true, I believe Google will likely have to do something like that with Android once they eventually acquire Motorola's portfolio. Otherwise they will seriously piss off the likes of HTC and Samsung.

It is possible to be competitive in the market whilst still protecting some of the code. Android is very good evidence of this.

----------

Its nice to see that from the outset they are going to do what Google should have done: prevent fragmentation!

http://developer.palm.com/blog/2011/12/open-source/

Well, you’ve been waiting for the big webOS announcement, and today we’ve made it. This morning, HP announced that webOS will be going open source with the resources of HP behind it. The Developer Relations team is very excited by this announcement and what it means for the future of webOS, and for you, our developer community.
With this announcement, Meg Whitman has reiterated HP’s commitment to webOS as a cloud-connected, scalable platform, while opening up new possibilities for platform expansion and improvement. She has also committed HP to a course of continued improvement to webOS, which means we’re in it for the long haul. Finally, we are committed to good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation of the platform.
Here in Developer Relations, we have the deepest appreciation for you, our developer community. You have helped to bring this announcement about through your passion and commitment, through periods of both promise and uncertainty.
We are committed to you as not only contributors to our app ecosystem, but now to webOS itself. We recognize that there’s a larger open source community of which we will now be a part, and are excited by the future now open to us.
We also know you’ll have a lot of questions, and we don’t have all the answers right now. We will keep you up-to-date on the latest developments, both in the forums and here on the developer blog.
We hope you’ll join us for the next leg of this journey!

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Not anymore. "Open" does not = "true competitor" to a successful, closed, controlled vertically-integrated platform.

It's basically a piñata now. Everyone will try to break it open and grab whatever falls out.

and yet Android is gaining market share from iOS.

 

[thenerdal]

HTC should make WebOS Phones.

 

[435713]

Thats awesome news and potentially huge. Lets hope manufacturers get on board with webOS. Truly a nice platform.

 

[velocityg4]

How can they say its the only os built from the ground up for the mobile platform? That seems so incorrect to me.

Given that WebOS is based on Linux I don't know how they can make that claim either. As Linux is originally a desktop OS that has been ported to numerous platforms.

Now if it was based off of Palm OS or Newton OS then they could make this claim. I'd say that Blackberry OS is the only OS actually built from the ground up for the mobile platform that is still being developed. Unless you count the regular cell phone OSes.

 

[gkpm]

"HP told us that they intend to hold on to their patents and will use them to protect developers using webOS."

http://www.precentral.net/open-source-plan

OK, Android and others might not be getting their hands into this code then

Let's see what means too. Still no answer on whether those patents will come with a royalty-free license or not.

 

[hitekalex]

I don't know why everyone is so excited. Open-sourcing WebOS is a nice gesture, but just slightly better than killing it off altogether.

For a mobile OS to succeed one needs a strong (preferably multi-billion dollar) entity focused and committed to its development and enhancement. It also needs hardware manufacturers backing and commitment.

Who is going to develop for WebOS now, beyond a small hacker community experimenting with their $99 TouchPads?

 

[thenerdal]

I don't know why everyone is so excited. Open-sourcing WebOS is a nice gesture, but just slightly better than killing it off altogether.

For a mobile OS to succeed one needs a strong (preferably multi-billion dollar) entity focused and committed to its development and enhancement. It also needs hardware manufacturers backing and commitment.

Who is going to develop for WebOS now, beyond a small hacker community experimenting with their $99 TouchPads?

"HP engineers, partners, other developers and hardware manufacturers will be able to contribute to the development of webOS. Together, we have an opportunity to make it the foundation of a new generation of devices, applications and services to address the rapidly evolving demands of both consumers and enterprises."

 

[bwillwall]

I really hope Web OS (Even though it isn't a web os ) does extremely well! I loved the layout of the os ever since I first saw it but it's sad how little support it's gotten. Hopefully this becomes a highly used alternative to android, because I would much rather have the competition come from a source that used theyre own ideas to make a mobile os than one that pretty much copied all of them. But iOS will still win, best app store, fastest, best music video etc, best multitasking, best web browser, best security, best voice recognition (I have used androids and it is C.R.A.P) and well just best everything, which is impressive when you look at it's first release in 2007 that only did very basic things.

 

[thenerdal]

I really hope Web OS (Even though it isn't a web os ) does extremely well! I loved the layout of the os ever since I first saw it but it's sad how little support it's gotten. Hopefully this becomes a highly used alternative to android, because I would much rather have the competition come from a source that used theyre own ideas to make a mobile os than one that pretty much copied all of them. But iOS will still win, best app store, fastest, best music video etc, best multitasking, best web browser, best security, best voice recognition (I have used androids and it is C.R.A.P) and well just best everything, which is impressive when you look at it's first release in 2007 that only did very basic things.

Actually, WebOS has best multitasking.

 

[bwillwall]

Actually, WebOS has best multitasking.

Actually your right where web os has the best multi tasking layout, but Apples tech behind it is best

 

[diamond.g]

I really hope Web OS (Even though it isn't a web os ) does extremely well! I loved the layout of the os ever since I first saw it but it's sad how little support it's gotten. Hopefully this becomes a highly used alternative to android, because I would much rather have the competition come from a source that used theyre own ideas to make a mobile os than one that pretty much copied all of them. But iOS will still win, best app store, fastest, best music video etc, best multitasking, best web browser, best security, best voice recognition (I have used androids and it is C.R.A.P) and well just best everything, which is impressive when you look at it's first release in 2007 that only did very basic things.

Lol, as far as I know most WebOS applications are just Javascript...

Apple could just adopt the application switching that WebOS has and it would make me happier...

 

[thenerdal]

Actually your right where web os has the best multi tasking layout, but Apples tech behind it is best

Lol. There is no tech behind multitasking. It's all based on the OS.

 

[fjanderson94]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I think this is really exciting news. This gives webos a second chance and to really compete with android. I had previously owned a palm per plus and thought the os was amazing just the hardware was crap. Hopefully we will be able to see some really nice phones and tablets now that it is open sourced.

 

[xraytech]

fantastic! The dream of open source OS is finally a reality and going nowhere now with HP and google are in it.. Apple and Microsoft can sue all they want. Hope HP does some backing thou, If they just dump it and walk away will be a fail... Hey amazon, app store?

hopefully this will become a race between android and webOS leaving the trash that is iOS ( aka, the dumbing down of apple ) for the little kids

We get it!

Going by your signature, we can clearly see that you're "The Bitter Tech Guy"


"Dumbing down of Apple?"

What ever happened to "Computing for the Masses". Not everyone can be as computer literate as YOU ARE.

 

[bwillwall]

Lol. There is no tech behind multitasking. It's all based on the OS.

thats not technology? Idk it could be web os too but apples is sort of 1/3 cloud 1/3 storing where u are and 1/3 running in the background where needed saving tons of battery

 

[donlab]

Nokia!

Dear Nokia,

I hope your leaders are reading this announcement. Get it together. Its time to get rid of Windows mobile.

kthxbai

 

[thenerdal]

thats not technology? Idk it could be web os too but apples is sort of 1/3 cloud 1/3 storing where u are and 1/3 running in the background where needed saving tons of battery

In iOS, it Pauses the app, in WebOS, it doesn't.

----------

Dear Nokia,

I hope your leaders are reading this announcement. Get it together. Its time to get rid of Windows mobile.

kthxbai

Windows Phone is a great OS too.

 

[bwillwall]

"In iOS, it Pauses the app, in WebOS, it doesn't."

Exactly, whats the point of running something in the background when your not using it? It's not like you can't run things in the background also when needed.

 

[thenerdal]

In iOS, it Pauses the app, in WebOS, it doesn't.

Exactly, whats the point of running something in the background when your not using it? It's not like you can't run things in the background also when needed.

That's actual multitasking.

 

[bwillwall]

That's actual multitasking.

okay but I don't see the reason real multitasking is only when an app is constantly running when "fake" multitasking could be considered better in some cases. The point is apples multitasking or w/e u want to call it is better on battery and works just as well.

 

[thenerdal]

okay but I don't see the reason real multitasking is only when an app is constantly running when "fake" multitasking could be considered better in some cases. The point is apples multitasking or w/e u want to call it is better on battery and works just as well.

Still, WebOS has the best Multitasking.

 

[hitekalex]

"HP engineers, partners, other developers and hardware manufacturers will be able to contribute to the development of webOS. Together, we have an opportunity to make it the foundation of a new generation of devices, applications and services to address the rapidly evolving demands of both consumers and enterprises."

All that is - just a bunch of corporate hooey. Exactly proves my point. HP could have just said:

"It was too embarrassing to outright kill something we just spent $1.2B on.. So instead we will just put it out to pasture, so when it finally dies - you won't have us to blame"​

 

[thenerdal]

All that is - just a bunch of corporate hooey. Exactly proves my point. HP could have just said:

"It was too embarrassing to outright kill something we just spent $1.2B on.. So instead we will just put it out to pasture, so when it finally dies - you won't have us to blame"​

Nah, if they thought it would die, they could've just sold the OS.

 

[Tastic Bycrom]

I honestly don't think this will make WebOS better. Consumers didn't chose it when Palm made devices with it, nor did they when HP did. Why would anyone want this now? Open-source projects rarely turn out to good for the user. Maintaing an OS via open-source is a huge task, just ask the Ubuntu team - which have had a difficult time for decades to break into consumers mindsets.

Nonsense. The state of availability of the source has nothing to do with the quality of the product. As long as a focused group continues to maintain, improve, and steer the future of the product it remains high quality. That focused group should be either HP or directly created by HP.

As for whether WebOS can succeed simply by allowing outside access, that may be doubtful, but remains to be seen.