Good news for those of us with HP Touchpads who aren’t sure what to do with them anymore. HP today announced to their employees that the WebOS software, which is run on them and their mobile phones, will be made open source.
In my opinion the WebOS platform is one of the best and is made even better with the ease at which apps can be made. Recently HP incorporated Node.js, making Javascript-based apps even more powerful and opens the doors further to web developers who fancy making a tablet app. With this, WebOS has the potential to host as many apps as Android.
From: CEO – Meg Whitman
Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 2:03 PM
Subject: webOS to be contributed to the open source communityMeg Whitman
CEOTO/ All Employees
SUBJECT/ webOS to be contributed to the open source community
Today, we announced that HP will contribute our webOS software to the open source community and support its development going forward. We believe that this is the best way to ensure the benefits of webOS are accessible to the largest possible ecosystem.
Since we announced the discontinuation of our webOS devices last August, the executive team has been working to determine the best path forward for this highly respected software. We looked at all the options in the market today and we see a clear need for a platform that is both open and has a single integrated stack.
webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected, and scalable. By providing webOS to the open source community and other hardware vendors we have the potential to fundamentally change the landscape.
HP engineers, partners, other developers and hardware manufacturers will be able to contribute to the development of webOS. Together, we have an opportunity to make it the foundation of a new generation of devices, applications and services to address the rapidly evolving demands of both consumers and enterprises.
I would like to thank the webOS team for continuing your efforts under very difficult circumstances during these last couple of months. Your dedication is very much appreciated.
This is a very positive move for the development of our people, our software and HP overall.
We strongly believe that the best days for webOS are still ahead.
Best,
Meg
Source: TechCrunch