Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
Summary: The more I look at what HP has had to say about webOS; the more I think the project's as dead as a doornail.
Is webOS' future the technology grave-yard?
When HP first announced that webOS and Enyo its application framework, would live on as an open-source project I thought it might have a chance to be successful. Now, after listening to HP's slightly more detailed plans and due consideration, I think webOS is a dead operating system walking. Here's why
1. Plan? What Plan?
HP hasn't decided on a license, a governance plan, or even what they'll do with their existing webOS staff. Does HP CEO Meg Whitman really have any kind of clue as to what the company will be doing with webOS? Simply open-sourcing a project means more than just saying that eventually you'll dump-ah release-the code to the public. Without commitment, resources, and, oh yes, a plan, webOS will only end up in a technology grave-yard along side Maemo, BeOS, and OS/2.
2. Where's the hardware?
To avoid an untimely end, webOS needs its own tablet hardware. Sure, hackers will run it on iPads and Android-tablets, but that's not a viable market. So, where's the hardware for webOS customers? Whitman has said that "HP could make WebOS-powered tablets in 2013."
Could? Could!? In 2013!! Come on HP, get with it!
People say Microsoft waited too long for Windows 8 and its 2012 tablet plans and you want to wait another year beyond that? My colleague James Kendrick worries that HP entering the tablet market might keep HTC, Samsung or some other original equipment manufacturer (OEM) from building webOS hardware. I, on the other hand, wonder given HP's non-support, why the other OEMs would bother with it. If HP won't support it, why should they?
The bottom line is HP appears to be not so much contributing webOS to the open-source community as it is abandoning it to open source. Neither Google with Android nor Apple with iOS will need to worry about webOS being a competitor. Unless HP shows that they'll be a lot more serious about supporting open-source webOS than it has to date, webOS is dead as the Indianapolis Colts' Super Bowl hopes.
Gravestone image by rubber bullets, , CC 2.0.
Related Stories:
HP open-sources WebOS, but will anyone develop for it?
HP's WebOS plan modeled after Red Hat's Fedora
One gotcha to open source webOS: HP
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Talkback
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
Well, considering . . . . . .
Maybe -
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
other companies werent so desperate to do something
Wow, HP's leadership is totally brilliant!
webOS isn't dead...
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
WebOS isn't dead, it's just pining for the fjords...
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
Wait and see
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
Actually, its been fun to read his columns now
But lately, he's been criticizing open source: Chrome OS, Firefox, Ubuntu and now WebOS
It's about time....
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
Why so critical?
We say that we want companies to be Open Source friendly and then we dump on them when they are. This is a huge gift and the community could do a lot with it regardless of what HP does.
We say we want companies to be transparent and open but then bitch when they announce their intentions before reaching 100% complete. There will be a license (the word is they are favouring APL). There will be governance too. That is when we will know WebOS has a shot or not. There may even be hardware.
Why do we freak out at Google for buying Motorola and then beat-up HP for not producing WebOS hardware? If Google can build the Android ecosystem through partners, then why can't HP do the same with WebOS? Given that Android now costs Samsung $15 per unit (in licensing fees to Microsoft), it may well be that WebOS is an attractive alternative. People seem to love the UI. Also, did you know that HP released more TouchPads into the market just yesterday? I think it is the second best selling tablet after the iPad.
But of course, the real hardware that HP cares about is printers. I am sure that is how they justify the continued investment in WebOS. WebOS is a huge opportunity for the industry and for the community. If we take good advantage of it, HP will have a nice bonus return on their investment and will perhaps get into the game directly with hardware of their own. That is clearly what they are thinking.
Gosh this is good press
Philippe CM
Needs Hardware
Perhaps some enterprising group will make a platform for WebOS. We now have Intel, ARM and Mips processors that will do this kind of work. Mips doesn't have much in the way of software to run. Perhaps an inexpensive Mips board, driving an inexpensive touch enabled screen.
Again, WebOS is late to the party
"Mips doesn't have much in the way of software to run. Perhaps an inexpensive Mips board, driving an inexpensive touch enabled screen.
"MIPS, Ingenic team on Android 4 tablet for less than $100
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/12/05/android.4.7.inch.tablet.in.china.trades.for.100/
Your thumbs down pretty much guarantees WebOS will be a success.
Ask yourself why would HP's new CEO, Meg Whitman, make WebOS her pet project? Sure, some CEOs tether themselves to stones that are subsequently thrown overboard, but this one was jettisoned even before she arrived. Is she just stupid or naive to call out WebOS' importance? Not a chance. She's doing it to ensure that it receives adequate resourcing and does undergo the transformation into a broader, non-mobile-phone play.
This isn't going to be the smartphone or tablet alternate platform anytime soon. However, it could easily become the best free platform for embedded development. As more and more devices strive to become Internet-aware, the emergence of a fully HTML5-ready platform along with high quality development tools couldn't come at a better time. For now we have to watch and see if they really open source all of that user-space code, Enyo, and backend code bases. Doing so will make the platform too compelling to overlook or dismiss. Oh, except by trade rags of course.
RE: Open-source webOS is dead on arrival
One would have to believe in the tooth fairy to think that HP will put out a WebOS based tablet in 2013. WebOS died the day HP announced they were getting out of the PC vendor market and canceled their tablet. When their tablets began selling at fire sale prices, $99@, they realized that they could recover some cash riding the wave of excitement by selling the returned and refurbished tablets. To ensure that the stock of returned and refurbished tablets would all be sold the next step was to make a "perhaps" (not a promise) that they "could" release another tablet by 2013. What to use as bait to make the "perhaps" seem like a promise? Throwing the FOSS/GPL community the WebOS cadaver. What FOSS/GPL coders would invest their precious time and treasure inventing in WebOS development when they could learn the API for iOS or Android?
I hope folks find comfort in the fact that there are no returns or refunds on those tablets for which they will be able to find few existing apps and even fewer new minted ones.
What a load of toss