Slashdot Mirror
HP Donates To WebOS's Major Hombrewing Group
Kilrah_il writes "WebOS Internals Group is the central repository for all the homebrewing done on the WebOS platform, including apps, patches and kernels. Recently it became clear that server infrastructure would fall behind future progress in the WebOS world. 'So they asked HP's Phil McKinney, who has arranged to donate an HP Proliant DL385 2u server with 32 gigs of RAM and 8 terabytes of disk space... Notably, this is a straight-up donation, no strings attached — so WebOS Internals will remain how they always have: completely independent from the company whose OS they hack on.'"
Now this is the sort of good PR you'd love to hear from a major company. Not legal threats (even if it's a mere cease-and-desist) against people trying to squeeze more juice from a device which they presumably own.
With the Palm acquisition, HP found themselves with a fairly nice mobile OS(with reasonable prospects of also doing Meego-esque tablet/netbook stuff); but one that was more or less dead last(even WinMo6.x has a legacy base).
It seems reasonable, then, for them to cozy up to the platform homebrewers. They are the conveniently-already-self-selected group who has the greatest enthusiasm for the product. They will also be the ones who volunteer themselves to test dubiously stable new features, experiment with stuff, and so forth. A useful asset, particularly if one does not have a large group of developers who support your platform for financial reasons.
Also, since(unlike Android or WP7), HP is currently the only distributor of WebOS devices, they have comparatively little to lose if homebrew ROMs circulate around. The only issue that might induce them to take a harder stance would be if commercial publishers start crying about piracy. We'll see if that happens...
Seriously, HP tends to get a lot of crap, but this is pretty awesome. I hope they can keep this up.
HP Donates To WebOS's Major Hombrewing Group
Actually, Major Hombre and his Group are tough customers.
What he doesn't tell you is that he's a system recovery specialist, and only gets called when the machines get dead.
It's like the Maytag Repairman, nobody ever calls him when things don't go wrong.
The funny thing is that your sig is the Konami code, which is used to enter developer mode in WebOS... which is the first part in homebrewing it.
Coincidence? I should think not!
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
kernel.org has been running on ProLiant gear for years. As far as I can tell, they've been quite happy...
There isn't a whole lot of mockup in server hardware.
HP servers a little more expensive because of their lilo cards and such, but the markup is pretty small.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
So, HP doesn't fight the developers that hack their own OS. Not only that, they also donate a server to that same group... and you complain that they don't donate enough?
You are correct, total "bleh".
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
Like Gundam but with large, squarish Mexicans instead of robots, fighting for control over the drug trade rather than justice.
Like Strike Witches but with scantily dressed hairy Mexican men instead of scantily dressed 8 year old girls, fighting over control of the drug trade instead of whatever the girls are fighting over.
Like Lucky Star but good!
(off topic) With "Hombrewing" and "J. C. Penny" [sic] on the front page, it seems that today's Slashdot is definitely not brought to you by the letter "E".
Anyway... Kudos to HP!
continuing the support that Palm already extended to the webOS community. I had a problem with google syncing my calendar when I first got my Pre Plus so I called the support line about that and yahoo messnger and Palm sent me to precentral for quote "all the IM, media players, and apps you cant find in the catalog" unquote. I am glad they are taking these steps. As fan of webOS I am glad to see this.
Isuzu Hombre Wings
Glad to see the webOS internals guys getting some well deserved credit and recognition. Without them webOS would have been a waste of time.
IF HP can do what they are trying, then Apple and Android may well be playing catch up in the not too distant future. HP is creating an OS environment that can go from desktop to laptop, to touch slates to cell phones without skipping a beat. Data and applications synchronized, seamlessly across devices. Scalable at an enterprise level with enterprise tools. No hodgepodge of Windows + iOS + Blackberry + Linux each with separate management tools. It's one stop shopping with a powerhouse like HP supporting it and for consumers, supporting the home brew community.
The prospects are quite exciting. Only time will reveal the results.
It's only when you have nothing to lose that you realize that you have everything to gain.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
How can that even be?
I'm sure it has something to do with fuzzy math and imaginary numbers, but WinPhone7 has new phones on the market - and more importantnly in consumer's hands. Until the new WebOS phones actually go on sale they are in 4th place.
Unfortunately while they say this was "valued at over $10000" they don't say exactly what was included. So we don't know if it's expensive because it's a ripoff or expensive because it's loaded down with the most expensive CPUs, HDDs, raid controllers etc that money can buy.
HPs site doesn't seem to want to let me configure that model of server (it lists a number of standard models but none of them include any drives) but when i've looked at dell the base prices are ok but the extras are a massive ripoff. £300 for a 1TB 7200 RPM sata hard drive?!
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
It's like our cable guy, my wife only calls him when thing go wrong... and I'm at work...
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
That'll teach me to proofread the title and not only the summery itself. My bad.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
This doesn't keep WebOS Inernals from going out of business. It makes it easier to help the community. WebOS Internals have bought much server power from direct donation from the WebOS fans. I've personally donated $120 to them. They reason? They are doing cool stuff.
WebOS Internals has done a bunch for the platform. Worth much more than a $10k server. Nice to anonymously question the ethics and morals of a stand up group. Have the balls to at least insult people under a username.
This is something you'd expect from Palm. Palm has for sometime allowed people to do what they want. Here's the facts: a. if you're a hacker -- you're doing it for your own good mostly (because if something breaks you can fix it). b. Why spend money to prevent all this stuff for the small minority that do it? Is it worth all the r&d? c. good ideas come from small places. Things can be learned by what the hacking community is focused on. HINT here Apple. real mulitasking!!! all the jailbreakers wanted it and got it. I like palm/hp so i hope they come up big. they should look at the android market as Blackberry is to help get them back in the game.
I was following Meego for the last few months and it was starting to look like the best alternative to Android for those that are completely annoyed by the closed Android phones and are left with only the Nexus S (with unimpressive hardware) or Geeksphone (even more unimpressive hardware) that are actually open in the true sense of the word. I was very disappointed to hear that Nokia isn't pushing Meego full steam onto the best hardware they can make. I considered WebOS for a bit based on some of the comments I've heard about the homebrew community, but my impression of the openness of system is that it is fully proprietary Linux and thus not an open system. Is there an equivalent of the AOSP? There other problem is that I don't get very excited about the Pre 3 hardware. A 3.6" screen? That is too small. I want something like Hitatchi's 4.5" 1280x720 screen and unitil that is available, I at least want a 4 to 4.3" 960x540 screen.
Is WebOS really going to grab any Meego deserters?
proofread the title and not only the summery itself.
You must be in the southern hemisphere; it's wintery here.
I fully agree that a not-yet-released device can't very well hold a top selling position; but I was also under the impression that MS releases mostly numbers for devices shipped as opposed to sold to consumers, so it's a bit hard to say where they stand. Safe bet that there's at least a few junkies out there who bought one, though.
What a depressingly stupid machine.
They should have donated one of the iTanics they have lying around, I'm sure they are numerous
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
And... I should stop posting comments at 5AM during a night shift. I mighte mek meny misteks
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
Phil McKinney: "Hey WebOS Internals Group, if there's anything we can do for you, shout."
WOSIG: "Cool. Actually, we could really use a donated server."
PM: "Lemme look into this."
HP: "Cool, bros. Here you go."
So, rather than a big cash reward, the homebrew developer group got exactly what they needed... which is a pretty good result, if you ask me.
So, I guess a summary is:
iPhone: jailbreak and be willing to be excommunicated from Apple, and you have root
Droid: jailbreak, and you have root
Pre: enter dev mode, and you have root
N900: you have root
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]