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

thenerdal said:
Nah, if they thought it would die, they could've just sold the OS.
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You don't seem to have a clue..

It's been widely publicized that HP has tried for months to sell or license out WebOS. Obviously, they couldn't find any willing parties or got any compelling offers. So they "open sourced" it, as it makes them look slightly better than just killing it.
 
The addition of more competition in the market place is always good. By pricing their devices along the lines of other makers, perhaps it will put price pressure on Apple. A definite benefit.
 
never got a chance to use WebOS and missed out on firesale on the touchpad.

But Bravo HP! I salute you making webOS opensource! Take guts to pull that off!
 
bwillwall said:
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.
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This reminds of the PC wars in the 90s. I remember when OS/2 was the first to have truly pre-emptive multitasking and Windows 95 ended up copying it. Don't know when MacOS finally got it but it was probably closer to when OSX came out. I remember people asking then why would you want multitasking.

So in the current example, WebOS = OS/2, iOS = MacOS, and Android = Windows. I bet Google steals all the cool features from WebOS like Microsoft did with OS/2. From what I've seen of ICS, it looks like they copied the multitasking card concept from WebOS already.

The point is that even with a mobile OS, you WANT real multitasking. There are many tasks that can be done in the background (not just the ones that Apple wants) while you're working on a foreground application. Claiming that battery or CPU will suffer is a copout knowing that hardware will always get better over time.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
and yet Android is gaining market share from iOS.
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Not really. Android is gaining primarily at the expense of RIM and Symbian. An open-source WebOS could provide some traction because it would be an alternative that is free from some of the patent baggage that Android manufacturers have to deal with (expensive royalties to Microsoft, lawsuits from Apple, etc.), but Google devotes a lot of resources to developing Android, while HP is unlikely to commit much to WebOS. Whether someone like HTC or Samsung decides to give WebOS a shot to prevent Google from amassing too much power remains to be seen. It might not have been worth paying HP to do so, but since now it's open source it might become a "hobby project" of those companies.
 
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)

As a iphone, ipad and macbook air owner, I am so so excited by this.
Long term, this will hopefully challenge Apple.

Really not liking the way apple are dominating the market/world and am ready for a change but the reality is, nothing comes close to me changing.

Fingers crossed.
 
Not about saving the webOS, it is about protection from shareholders

hitekalex said:
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?
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This is basically a way for Whitman to immunize the executive team and the board from a shareholders' bullet for flushing HP's money down the toilet on yet another fruitless purchase. Killing it outright is too politically dangerous and might result in someone not getting their multi-million dollar bonus. In all likelihood they are finishing off the details of converting this loss into some sort of one-time "charitable" deduction or open source tax credit so they can shift the losses generated by their incompetence onto the public and look like geniuses.
 
thenerdal said:
Still, WebOS has the best Multitasking.
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That may be true... but it didn't help Palm sell phones or HP sell tablets.

And it didn't make developers create apps for either.

WebOS can go ahead and claim the award for "best multitasking" but there's still a little more work that needs to be done.

Actually... a lot of work.
 
webOS is too good to let die

Good for Meg. HP doesn't know what to do with webOS. Open-sourcing it makes it available to those who do.

This could, of course, lead to a scenario like that of Android in the pad space. Google had little success there, at least in comparison to iPad, until Amazon took the Android ball and ran with it. The result was the Kindle Fire. Great for Amazon. Terrible for Google.

There is no longer any need for Android developers to write apps for anything other than for Amazon's proprietary fork of Android 2.3. They'll just go with the leading Android device in the pad space. Amazon will make it easy for them by ignoring Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and subsequent releases. ("Fruitcake" maybe? In honor of Eric Schmidt's creepy nuttiness?)

Meg should wait and see who makes webOS devices over the next year or so. Then HP could revive their TouchPad project if and when there's any interest out there. And if they think they can actually compete in the pad space.
 
Dmunjal said:
So in the current example, WebOS = OS/2, iOS = MacOS, and Android = Windows. I bet Google steals all the cool features from WebOS like Microsoft did with OS/2. From what I've seen of ICS, it looks like they copied the multitasking card concept from WebOS already.
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Well, Android came aut before WebOS and it had the same multitasking concepts from the beginning
 
Michael Scrip said:
That may be true... but it didn't help Palm sell phones or HP sell tablets.

And it didn't make developers create apps for either.

WebOS can go ahead and claim the award for "best multitasking" but there's still a little more work that needs to be done.

Actually... a lot of work.
Click to expand...

I blame HP's crappy marketing for that.
 
SockRolid said:
There is no longer any need for Android developers to write apps for anything other than for Amazon's proprietary fork of Android 2.3. They'll just go with the leading Android device in the pad space. Amazon will make it easy for them by ignoring Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and subsequent releases. ("Fruitcake" maybe? In honor of Eric Schmidt's creepy nuttiness?)
Click to expand...

You can repeat the times you want, it won't be more right.

P.S. A little secret, Fire is not the leading Android device and it even is not sold outside USA (remember, there is a whole world outside its borders)
 
maflynn said:
Wow, that's cool. HP made a great decision that will not only benefit its current customers but also hopefully add an alternative to android
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I couldn't agree more. And EVERYONE here knows, HP will do FAR less with this than others. They seem to be absolute masters of failure lately.
 
SockRolid said:
Good for Meg. HP doesn't know what to do with webOS. Open-sourcing it makes it available to those who do.

This could, of course, lead to a scenario like that of Android in the pad space. Google had little success there, at least in comparison to iPad, until Amazon took the Android ball and ran with it. The result was the Kindle Fire. Great for Amazon. Terrible for Google.

There is no longer any need for Android developers to write apps for anything other than for Amazon's proprietary fork of Android 2.3. They'll just go with the leading Android device in the pad space. Amazon will make it easy for them by ignoring Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and subsequent releases. ("Fruitcake" maybe? In honor of Eric Schmidt's creepy nuttiness?)

Meg should wait and see who makes webOS devices over the next year or so. Then HP could revive their TouchPad project if and when there's any interest out there. And if they think they can actually compete in the pad space.
Click to expand...

Yes Good for Meg, she took all that shareholder equity and simply crossed it off the books.
 
Oletros said:
Well, Android came aut before WebOS and it had the same multitasking concepts from the beginning
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Did Android always have full multitasking in version 1.0? I know PalmOS didn't and WebOS was the first to have it.
 
flipperfeet said:
Yes Good for Meg, she took all that shareholder equity and simply crossed it off the books.
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Well, by the way you work, Google is making a huge mistake spending money on developing Android considering they don't sell it. Yet here we are, with them sitting on a glacier of cash. I could only imagine the massive market cap they would have if you were in charge. :rolleyes:
 
"webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable," said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. "By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices."

HP will make the underlying code of webOS available under an open source license. Developers, partners, HP engineers and other hardware manufacturers can deliver ongoing enhancements and new versions into the marketplace.
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Poor Meg must be living in a bubble...she hasn't heard of iOS yet: Built from the ground up to be mobile and cloud connected...and IS doing both while webOS, as good as it may be, is only a dream... a nightmare, really, to two different companies who haven't made a single dime of profit from it.

And what is this "scalable" thing, she speaks of? Carp and Perch are scalable, catfish aren't. Must be one of those "power words" some people throw out, like "true multitasking."

Apple will lead the parade and let all the wannabes fight it out with one claiming "Great Taste" and the other, "Less Filling."
 
Kaibelf said:
Well, by the way you work, Google is making a huge mistake spending money on developing Android considering they don't sell it. Yet here we are, with them sitting on a glacier of cash. I could only imagine the massive market cap they would have if you were in charge. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You don't understand Google's business model, their goal is to get as many eyeballs looking at PPC and banner ads as possible, fostering the creation of cheap or free mobile devices supports that business model. If you look at everything Google does you will see it supports this, without growth in content and users their revenues flatline. Last time I checked HP was in the hardware business not in the media business. Maybe if you were not so quick to roll your eyes you might actually see what is in front of your face.
 
WebOS has serious potential, someone will pick it up from where it left off and do something with it. I think it has a good potential to be a contender in the market.
 
SockRolid said:
There is no longer any need for Android developers to write apps for anything other than for Amazon's proprietary fork of Android 2.3. They'll just go with the leading Android device in the pad space. Amazon will make it easy for them by ignoring Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and subsequent releases. ("Fruitcake" maybe? In honor of Eric Schmidt's creepy nuttiness?)
Click to expand...

What are you talking about? There are plenty of phones that run android that developers are going to want to develop apps for. Amazon hasn't completely eclipsed the android market with its version. Besides ICS is supposed to unify the operating system better.

Without really knowing the specifics of developing apps for android I can't imagine it being that difficult to port one program to run on different versions of the operating system.
 
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