HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source • Hacker News Board

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#11

Post by ConstantineXVI » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:54 PM UTC

sjs wrote: post #5

"under an open source license" is vague. I hope more details emerge soon. If it's a liberal license this could be very interesting. Without a group leading development the project may languish so ideally a competent group, with a vision, decides to run with webOS.

> "HP will be an active participant and investor in the project"

"competent" is up for debate, but they're planning on still running the show.

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#12

Post by megaduck » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:56 PM UTC

This is fantastic news. WebOS has always been full of great ideas, but held back by shaky underpinnings. It's like the inverse of most open-source projects. Great UI, not-so-hot implementation.

There's a lot of folks (myself included) that would have been happy to jump in and assist, but couldn't due to the closed-source nature of the platform.

The real prize, however, is Enyo. It's a great Javascript framework, and works in virtually any webkit-based browser. The biggest problem was the licensing terms: You could only use it on WebOS phones. Now that barrier's being removed.

I'm really looking forward to this. Can't wait to dive into the code. :)

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#13

Post by siglesias » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:56 PM UTC

Dumb question, but what's in it for HP?

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#14

Post by gms » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:58 PM UTC

'Contribute to open source'? More like 'dump onto open source'.

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#15

Post by barredo » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:58 PM UTC

I'm buying my 150€ dev touchpad right now. I was hoping for something like this before committing to the platform.

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#16

Post by jpxxx » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:58 PM UTC

Honest question: to what end is this happening? They receive no money from a sale of the project, they still have to commit engineering resources, they lose some level of control over its development and its future,and how is it going to be placed into someone else's aboveboard commercial mobile product if there aren't any guarantees against patent attacks?

What is the upside?

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#17

Post by gms » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 6:59 PM UTC

siglesias wrote: post #13

Dumb question, but what's in it for HP?

PR. They haven't got a clue about what do with webOS, so instead of announcing its shutdown, they 'donate' it to open source.

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#18

Post by jianshen » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 7:00 PM UTC

mchanson wrote: post #7

I'm really interested to see if this means WebOS would compete with Android in a meaningful way. Google puts a lot of work into outreach/support/evangelism to handset makers and I think also carriers. Android's big because of being open, but also because of all of the efforts Google is making. HP is not really known for being reliable lately in their strategic direction... My prediction (for all that is worth) is tha…

Great point. Most of the popular open source projects in the JS space (jquery or node.js for instance) have a person that serves as the voice of the projects. I think if someone from the webOS dev team stepped up to take that role, I'd be a lot more confident in where the platform is headed.

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#19

Post by untog » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 7:00 PM UTC

megaduck wrote: post #12

This is fantastic news. WebOS has always been full of great ideas, but held back by shaky underpinnings. It's like the inverse of most open-source projects. Great UI, not-so-hot implementation. There's a lot of folks (myself included) that would have been happy to jump in and assist, but couldn't due to the closed-source nature of the platform. The real prize, however, is Enyo. It's a great Javascript framework, and…

Seconding the excitement about Enyo. This could/should be absolutely huge. Speaks to the level of disorganisation in HP that the blog they link to has no mention of the open sourcing, though. Woops.

Re: HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

#20

Post by untog » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 7:01 PM UTC

mchanson wrote: post #7

I'm really interested to see if this means WebOS would compete with Android in a meaningful way. Google puts a lot of work into outreach/support/evangelism to handset makers and I think also carriers. Android's big because of being open, but also because of all of the efforts Google is making. HP is not really known for being reliable lately in their strategic direction... My prediction (for all that is worth) is tha…

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we end up with people making a compatibility layer between the two somehow. Without a major backer, WebOS won't ever be a big deal. But if you could run Android apps on the WebOS UI...