HP puts webOS on open source track

The software, along with the companion ENYO application framework, now will be available pursuant to this agreement an open source license to anyone who wants to use the mobile OS first created by Palm for the Pre line of smartphones. HP plans to be an "active participant and investor" in the open source initiative, nevertheless didn't say how or to what extent.

The decision is something of a reprieve for the mobile platform. Originally designed by Palm, and presented in the first Palm Pre smartphone in mid-2009, webOS was praised by developers who adopted it. Mobile applications could be written utterly in JavaScript, HTML and Cascading Style Sheets, all familiar to Web developers. It was designed as a multi-tasking OS with features to minimize an array of potential problems in running several mobile apps straightway. And the UI was praised as offering a simple, intuitive user experience.

But Palm stumbled when buyers and developers didn't flock to the products and platform. In April 2010, HP announced it was buying the company, for $1.2 billion, with the intent of launching an aggressive push into mobile computing and telephony products. Last summer, HP launched its first webOS tablet, the HP TouchPad, which met with mixed reviews.

The TouchPad

After the TouchPad was canceled, Network World blogger Alan Shimel encouraged HP to consider an open source direction for the OS. Among other benefits, he wrote, an "open source WebOS could as well attract developers who may have been wary of working on the OS during HP owned it. A critical mass of developers and a few hardware suppliers and WebOS would be so then on its way."