HP's WebOS plan modeled after Red Hat's Fedora
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Hewlett-Packard's is taking WebOS open source, but its success may depend on what license it chooses as well as protecting developers from lawsuits.
- Who owns the patents? HP is retaining the patents related to WebOS. Why? HP will use them to defend developers that use the WebOS code.
- What license will HP use? HP said it is going to use something similar to Apache. CDDL, Apache and MPL are all possibilities. HP's biggest goal is to keep WebOS from splintering, but it also can't create a parallel licensing universe. Apache would be the most logical choice with MPL as a possibility.
- What happens to WebOS employees? Employees will remain with HP until an organizational structure is created.
- What's the governance model? HP will use an open governance model and has looked extensively at Red Hat's Fedora model. The goal is to be open, but prevent forks. Under the Fedora model, contributions are evaluated by the community.
Overall, HP's plan sounds reasonable. Going forward, HP is reportedly going to consider WebOS tablets in 2013. Whether that actually happens or not---HP could be hinting at WebOS tablets just to garner developer interest---will largely depend on the four items above.
Related: CNET: HP tosses WebOS out of frying pan into the open-source fire
More: HP open sources WebOS: The fallout | HP: WebOS, Enyo app framework goes open source | CNET: Sorry, WebOS is doomed to fail | webOS’ potential: A headache for iOS, Android? | HP to make webOS open source; is it just prolonging the end? | HP open-sources WebOS, but will anyone develop for it? | Why open-source WebOS has legs: because people fear Google