WebOs will be open source, and of course, alive and supported by HP

[jocampo]

WebOs will be open source, in my opinion, very good news.

Very good news, in my opinion!

Hmmm, maybe I should get one of those HP tablets now ... will be kind of like an Ubuntu flavored tablet ....

[RainingLemur]

That's promising to hear.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by RainingLemur

That's promising to hear.

In fact, it may be a better (or good enough) alternative on some 7" Android tablets out there.

I love webOs interface ...

[=X=]

This is interesting news. If played right this could be just the thing that will jolt webOS.

I guess the question I have is what license will HP go with, the article never says what license they are going with. If it's open source with HP controlling all the rights I don't think developers will have much interest.

=X=

[CWatkinsNash]

That's great news!

[=X=]

Originally Posted by jocampo

In fact, it may be a better (or good enough) alternative on some 7" Android tablets out there.

I love webOs interface ...

Yes I've always liked the webOS design, I've always felt it was the best mobile OS on the market. What I've never liked was the hardware. Opening the source will allow this OS to be installed on many different devices.

=X=

[Barty]

It'd be cool to see this on decent hardware.

Nice move by HP. They just didn't dump it off for some quick cash.

[HansTWN]

WebOS is still the best of all mobile OS's, IMHO after having used the 2 market leaders. This is definitely great news.

[tubemonkey]

Where's the app store?

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by =X=

This is interesting news. If played right this could be just the thing that will jolt webOS.

I guess the question I have is what license will HP go with, the article never says what license they are going with. If it's open source with HP controlling all the rights I don't think developers will have much interest.

=X=

I do not know the exact details about the licensing mode, but this is my understanding of the situation and how it will be handled.

There will be a committee of about 6 persons (or something like that), mostly outside developers. One or two , HP employees. That way, changes will be someway regulated, avoiding a similar situation that we are having now with Linux and so any distros. This will ensure that will remain open source but without being a chaos and any kid of teenager doing changes and re-releasing as webOs, which makes difficult hardware and driver compatibility.

Sounds good in theory but like you said, let's see what real developers think about the situation.

The other important point is that not the whole webOs code is HP property only. I believe they are some portions licensed to Oracle and Microsoft. We will have to generate open source equivalent for those.

[markbot]

Originally Posted by jocampo

WebOs will be open source, in my opinion, very good news.

Very good news, in my opinion!

Hmmm, maybe I should get one of those HP tablets now ... will be kind of like an Ubuntu flavored tablet ....

HP should not have bought palm and should have just done an Android tablet...

how anyone, let alone supposed industry experts, would think the Palm acquisition would ever work out is hard to fathom...it was just so obviously a terrible acquisition. the CEOs were probably buddies and this was like some subconscious way to enrich friends.

[wigm]

I just want my netflix... But seriously, it is a very capable device, I don't really care about a million apps, just a few good ones. Already have an ok kindle app(needs work), video player through preware, now I just want a good media center client.

[jocampo]

Originally Posted by markbot

HP should not have bought palm and should have just done an Android tablet...

how anyone, let alone supposed industry experts, would think the Palm acquisition would ever work out is hard to fathom...it was just so obviously a terrible acquisition. the CEOs were probably buddies and this was like some subconscious way to enrich friends.

With all respect, does not look you know the "why" of the acquisition.

The main reason was expanding the software's portfolio and make an entrance into the smartphone market. Like other have said, webOs is a good operating system. If you go back 2 years or more, it was even better than Android at that time.

The problem is or was, and probably you will agree on me on this, it was not handled properly. Maybe HP did not invest enough money on R&N or did not paired the Os with a great hardware, I don't know... but did not good as smooth as planned. And to makes things worse, previous CEO had the crazy idea of selling PSG, leaving webOs future in hands of uncertainty. That damaged the trust users had on the Os, really bad.

In my opinion, the acquisition made total sense. But it was not handled properly, which is different.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by markbot

HP should not have bought palm and should have just done an Android tablet...

I agree. A tablet needs strong content and reasonable pricing in order in order to sell. The TouchPad had neither.

I fail to understand why HP felt the need to have its own mobile OS. They don't have their own desktop OS for the computers they sell; and look how successful they are. They have models for all budgets, ranging from low end to high end.

That's what they should've done with tablets. They should've produced several models ranging in price from $199 to $499 and up; all running Android. Forget the software and concentrate on the hardware. That's what HP does best.

The TouchPad is a great internet device; but as a tablet it fails. Why? Because it has no content. The app store sucks big time. HP did things backwards. They released a tablet with little content. Amazon, on the other hand, did it right. Before they released their tablet, they built up very strong content. HP could learn a valuable lesson here.

That said, I'm loving my $99 TouchPad. It's a great internet device for my coffee table. But without an app store, it's a lousy tablet.

[jocampo]

This is a very, very, complex topic.

But in a nutshell. The idea was launching a nice hardware with a nice Os, and allow the market to growth. It is virtually impossible to launch a product with a complete market at the same time of the release; it takes months, even a year. Amazon content is just ok, and it was release several months ago.

Waiting until an app market is mature, is not an option either, because then you launch your product too late. Remember, in technology, a year is almost a century.

The problem with other products and their markets is that no matter what, will be compared to Apple and iPads. But what some folks forget, is that it took months for iPad to get true iPad apps. But of course, we had nothing to compare so the situation was better for Apple. When you're the 1st on something and it creates a success, the only competitor or point of comparison is yourself.

About releasing a 10" tablet with a 200 dollar price, that's just not possible, period. The cost of the TouchPad is about 300 dollars. Nobody sell products to lose money and unless Amazon, HP was not looking for long term profit via software or retail sales, besides, is a risky move. Selling hardware at loss, expecting to recover later via software, is a risky move no matter what, and the more you sell, the more you need to make later to recover.

I believe the idea of buying webOs was, again, expanding the HP software's portfolio and getting some patents that otherwise, was gonna be too expensive. HP was interested on the smartphone market (hardware) but it is easier to sell and make those kind of products if you own both, software and hardware.

The regular Os business is a different story. It is easier to change operating systems on computers and laptops (excluding Macs) than smartphones, because hardware and carrier limitations. Plus there are huge agreements between Microsoft and HP that allow both to make good profit and cooperate together. HP wanted to enter in the smartphone arena without having to rely in third party vendors in order to run the operating system, like using Android or Windows.

Yes, the acquisition went bad, but in my opinion, it made sense.