Hewlett-Packard Co. is making webOS an open-source
 

Hewlett-Packard Co. is making webOS an open-source project after failing to find a buyer for the mobile operating system, acquired last year along with Palm Inc. for $1.2 billion.
The open-source model means that any individual or company can use or make improvements to webOS for free provided they follow a few guidelines. H-P said Friday it would continue to make enhancements to webOS.

Nice, WebOS is an excellent alternative for pads and phones without the patent problems of Android.


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I have Android on my HP touchpad. I have literally not booted in to webOS since the first day I got it. Android makes better use of the hardware, boots faster, and runs smoother.

WebOS = losing...

webos is a great os for phones... too bad they couldn't adapt fast enough.

Man they didn't Win.

Open-source is a good way to get a lot of development work done for free.

It sure worked for Firefox nee Netscape. Like Android, WebOS is based on the Linux kernel. Google hasn't been as open as was hired with their development process. Threre may be a battle for developers based on who is more open, alongside the competition for OEMs.

I think that with WebOS open source we will see new devices using it and lots of development. Android has increasing restrictions and many companies are being forces to pay license fees to Microsoft and Oracle since Google appears to have stolen code. That will make WebOS far less expensive; Free. I have a firesale touchpad and admit I like the interface, it just needs more applications.

It will be interesting to see that take up of WebOS.

A lot of firms will probably use it being free, and we may see it in all sorts of things.

It will be good to have new competition.

Even the Microsoft FUD machine doesn't claim stolen code. They claim patents on basic ideas like selecting text and manipulating it, for example. They claim that the idea of selecting something, such as for copy and paste, is their proprietary property.

Barnes and Noble has filed HUNDREDS of examples of prior art invalidating the patents. For example, in 1976 my favorite text editor, vi, had a text selection feature that includes the elements Microsoft claims to have invented 24 years later.

They also claim to have invented the "loading" status message in a web browser in 1997. You can still download a 1993 copy of Mosaic and check out the status messages. Their claims are completely falling apart, as they knew they would, but they successfully created fear, uncertainty, and doubt for a year with these bogus claims.