{"id":6548,"date":"2011-12-09T15:09:42","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T21:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=6548"},"modified":"2011-12-13T11:51:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-13T17:51:01","slug":"hp-announces-fate-of-webos-gives-techcitement-co-founder-tachycardia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/hardware\/tablet\/hp-announces-fate-of-webos-gives-techcitement-co-founder-tachycardia\/","title":{"rendered":"HP Announces Fate Of webOS, Gives Techcitement Co-Founder Tachycardia"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I read the finally-announced fate of webOS, I got so excited that my congenital heart condition flared up. It’s not often that I read something so exciting that I need to sit down and breath deep. Many at the the announcement were expecting a total shelving, others a sale or a license. What few expected was for HP to make webOS open source. For those unfamiliar with the concept, open source means that HP is releasing the complete source code (with the exception of technologies they themselves\u00a0licensed) to the public, for anyone to work on.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons this is so techciting is that webOS’s massive selling point has always been her homebrew developers. Take for example, how they helped someone make the mostly plastic TouchPad a great MRI companion device<\/a>. Indeed, some time back, there was an attempt to port webOS to a laptop. It was working, but those involved shut it down when they realized they were violating the license for webOS. Now they won’t be.\u00a0The thought of such creative souls sticking webOS on something like a Samsung Galaxy tab or even one of HP’s windows-based Slates fills me with glee.<\/p>\n

Back when webOS came out on the Pre I told a co-worker how I thought it would be the perfect tablet OS. Later, I\u00a0found\u00a0that to be true, but the hardware not up to snuff (although if you still want a TouchPad, check eBay on Sunday night<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Meg Whitman and eBay, smiling into your soul<\/p><\/div>\n

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Now, webOS has a chance to\u00a0transcend\u00a0the hardware and be a real operating system. Although HP does plan on making some kind of device with it in the future, according to a quote by Meg Whitman in her interview with The Verge<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Will HP be creating any new webOS hardware?<\/p>\n

Meg: The answer to that is yes but what I can’t tell you is whether that will be in 2012 or not. But we will use webOS in new hardware, but it’s just going to take us a little longer to reorganize the team in a quite different direction than we’ve been taking it in the past.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The awesome bit now is that I won’t have to wait for that mysterious future to arrive if I don’t want to.<\/p>\n

Full press release from HP below:<\/p>\n

HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source<\/em><\/p>\n

HP to enable creativity of the community to accelerate the next-generation web-centric platform<\/em><\/p>\n

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 9, 2011 \u2013 HP today announced it will contribute the webOS software to the open source community.<\/em><\/p>\n

HP plans to continue to be active in the development and support of webOS. By combining the innovative webOS platform with the development power of the open source community, there is the opportunity to significantly improve applications and web services for the next generation of devices.<\/em><\/p>\n

webOS offers a number of benefits to the entire ecosystem of web applications. For developers, applications can be easily built using standard web technologies. In addition, its single integrated stack offers multiplatform portability. For device manufacturers, it provides a single web-centric platform to run across multiple devices. As a result, the end user benefits from a fast, immersive user experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cwebOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable,\u201d said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. \u201cBy contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

HP will engage the open source community to help define the charter of the open source project under a set of operating principles:<\/em><\/p>\n