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Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

developer.palm.com

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Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#81

Post by rsanchez1 »

daniel_solano wrote: post #46
noonespecial wrote: post #38

I love it simply because its the best SSH experience of all of the smartphones. One click gets me the phones real terminal and then "ssh -l me whereever.com". No bogus setup screens, with each server requiring a 5 minute fill in the blank session to connect to, no menus full of special keys to transmit (most covered with the orange key), just pure .ssh/id_dsa public key in my home-dir win . Its 10x easier than the be…

Have you tried Maemo? With Maemo, I can just launch an xterm and ssh to my heart's content. For that matter, I can also set up an SSH server and ssh into the device. I'm guessing Meego probably has the same support. In my experience, it's the closest experience to have a full Linux box that I can stick in my pocket.

Yeah, I can do all of that with my Pre 2 as well, and I had been doing it on my Pre for a while.

Heck, with xterm on my Pre 2, I can run a Debian or Ubuntu ARM rootfs and actually have a full Linux experience in my pocket.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#82

Post by rsanchez1 »

jsz0 wrote: post #64

I was hoping Palm would eventually license WebOS to companies that could make better hardware and offer more desirable form factors. WebOS is nice but the original Pre was just truly awful hardware. Under powered, fragile, terrible keyboard, screen was too small, etc. It doesn't look like the other WebOS devices released since have really improved on this much. Unfortunately HP would never consider licensing so hopef…

The Pre 2 is a huge improvement over the original Pre and its upgraded Plus version. It's just that no one ever cared enough to sell it.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#83

Post by rsanchez1 »

slowpoison wrote: post #66

If HP really wants developers behind it, they should consider giving away these devices to the developers. Even a $500 phone is a cheap investment with high returns, when made on a developer who's going to invest time (and money), is going to learn mostly by herself, and release an app in the market, even if in the hopes of making money for herself. With Android already doing well, I don't see a developer risking her…

They were giving away Pre 2's. They probably still are giving them away if they still have them in stock.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#84

Post by rsanchez1 »

jinushaun wrote: post #68

I've always had a soft spot for WebOS and still prefer it over Android and WP7. However, Palm gimped themselves by making it Sprint exclusive and putting the OS on cheap plastic hardware.

They released all their phones to AT&T and Verizon shortly after the Sprint exclusive. The Pre 2, vastly improved over the Pre, was formerly available only as a GSM unlocked device, and now on Verizon. The Veer is an AT&T exclusive. Sprint distanced itself from webOS a long time ago.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#85

Post by rsanchez1 »

eekfuh wrote: post #10

#7: You can try cutting edge stuff. Yet you can't even do css background gradients. Real cutting edge.

Running native C/C++ code is pretty cutting-edge stuff. It's essentially the Chrome Native Client, on mobile. I've developed a pretty nice app using a native plugin. Unfortunately, most current webOS users won't get to use it because, although the PDK was released last year and, at least for my app, hybrids work perfectly on all webOS devices running at least webOS 1.4.5, Palm (and now HP) has decided to restrict hybrid apps in the app catalog only to webOS 2.1 users, which are very few and far between right now.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#87

Post by grayrest »

michaelpinto wrote: post #71

You know what's lacking from this list? A killer feature that both Android or iOS lacks. And that doesn't just have to be software, it can be the backing of other high profile manufacturers or a super low price point. The problem is that when you don't have market share you have to have bells and whistles the get geeks excited. I love HP as a company, and they're great as making stuff — but making an operating system…

The killer feature for me is that you can patch the builtin apps. The WebOS OSS community is actually pretty cohesive and have their own market with a subcategory for system patches. You install it like any other app and it runs patch in the background, restart the phone and the patch is applied.

After owning an android device for a year, I've come to realize the only features I use are directions, web, mail, and Kindle. I regularly dislike/want one particular feature in these apps and feel that I can get them to work how I want if I can patch so I'll be switching over when I get a new phone.

I'm in the early access program and I've spent a couple weekends on it. Waiting on clarification on Enyo's licensing (i.e. can I use it as a baseline for cross platform apps) which has not been forthcoming before actually investing in the platform. I've been asking about Enyo licensing at events since January and nobody will say.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#88

Post by rsanchez1 »

unwiredben wrote: post #75
harvestgrand wrote: post #72

Are you stuck with the hp app store or can you go to places like apptown?

For purchasing apps, you use the HP App Catalog, but you can easily sideload applications using the developer tools, and that can install alternative catalogs like PreWare.

Easily for developers, but there's no easy option for consumers in general to sideload apps on their phones without having to download separate software. For Android, all someone has to do to sideload an app is download it through the browser.

Re: Why Geeks Should Love HP WebOS

#90

Post by barkerja »

DaveBowman wrote: post #77
plainOldText wrote: post #23

I think WebOS is great. But all the Palm devices are sliders which kinda sucks. I wish they'd come up with something comparable with Nexus S or iPhone 4. A simple, but cool nice little piece of smartphone. But, that's just me.

The Palm Pixi is not a slider, and I love it.

But it is terrrrrribly slow, even overclocked.
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