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Tizen, webOS, & the Future of Mobile Open Source
jfruhlinger writes "When HP announced it would release webOS as open source, it added a competitor to a narrow niche: there's already Tizen, the descendant of MeeGo, which is, like webOS, an open source Linux-based operating system for smartphones. Can they co-exist, or will one come out on top? One built-in advantage for webOS is that already has hardware, in the form of all those $99 TouchPad's being snapped up on eBay."
This is abandonware. That seems to be a trend. As something becomes unprofitable but still has a user base, it's open-sourced to make the support load go away.
I think there might be another open-source, Linux-based operating systems for smartphones besides Tizen or webOS, called something like Robot or Cyborg -- not either of those exactly, but something in the same vein...
I think there is a lot of potential for developers to make money and make WebOS into something much better. You already have over a million people with Touchpads plus all those Webos Phones. There work in progress to run Android Apps inside WebOS, and if some can port Netflix and Hulu over then I'm sure it will be a winner.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
When Il bought my N900 I had a choice between WebOS, Android and Maemo (predecessor of MeeGo/Tizen). I chose Maemo because it was real GNU/Linux, not some Java/JS-based OS with the warm fuzziness of a Linux-based kernel like the other two. Also the hardware was fully open, no rooting or bootloader cracking required. Wake me up when I can get something new like that, with a hardware keyboard.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I love WebOS as much as anyone, even on my sh*tty Pixi phone, but it will take a miracle for any resurrection to come out of the open source movement. Better to take the best parts of webOS (synergy/contact management and the SDK) and slipstream them into an OS that manufacturers support.
Realistically, I see WebOS evaporating as well is Tizen. Android is more than a technology platform, it is a brand. The word 'webOS' does not carry the marketing value that 'android' does. Apple has already set the pace of mobile experience being dominated by one-off applications more than more neutral web interfaces and so you have a significant network effect in play, no company backing means a distinct lack of applications for users and a dead platform.
Even if you subscribe to the theory the mobile market continues to show high volatility and there isn't the signs of insurmountable entrenchment like the desktop market and therefore anything including WebOS has a shot, WebOS is severely handicapped. It comes with the baggage of failing to bail out the once-great Palm, of sucking billions out of HP, and every appearance of being abandoned as a result. A technical advocate trying to get business leadership to recognize the value in the platform and commit to it has very little to no chance of convincing business leaders given the track record.
It's a shame too, ever since I had to go to an Android device, I've found the experience *highly* annoying compared to WebOS.
-The gestures were so nice and smooth and I miss them.
-As a corollary, 'back' was a lot more consistent (in Android, it ends up serving double duty for per-app 'back' and task switching if it thinks it appropriate).
-Same for menus, Android apps are a mess with how inconsistently they deal with the menu button being pressed, and 99% of the time additional content is inelegantly dumped into one 'more settings' button.
-When I switched away and back to an app in WebOS, the interface was just so much more sensible and showing what was going on better.
-When I switch away and back in WebOS, the app was always consistent with where I left it last. In Android, it's a crap shoot. Sometimes the app just continues running in memory and is consistent when I return, sometimes that same app was killed arbitrarily by the OS and doesn't restore, sometimes an app faced with that inconsistency just always forces their piss-poor state restore every time they are backgrounded.
-I could reasonably manage multiple textual conversations in baked in WebOS chat. Multiple chats open concurrently all under a single coherent messaging system. Now if I get gTalk, one app manages it and if I get SMS, something else handles it. If I'm chatting with someone and switch away to look up something and switch back, the SMS app has closed my conversation and I have to find it again.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
1. I'm not convinced at all that HP is giving up on WebOS, if they had wanted to get rid of it, they could have sold it for a lot of money. There are many interested buyers.
2. WebOS has a huge advantage, it already exists. Tizen doesn't. Intel had announced that they would announce the architecture at Linuxcon Europe, but they had nothing to show. Rumour is that they're still in negotiation with Samsung.. And doing this kind of work in a joint venture is always a terrible idea as there is no clear direction. On the other hand, WebOS exists, works and is on devices already. And it seems HP is still investing in it. Also WebOS has applications, Tizen doesn't, it doesn't even have any defined APIs, no one knows what will be in it, etc.
... they'll adopt WebOS, stick it on top of Meego, include the Qt stuff to keep existing, highly productive Maemo developers on board and have themselves a cheap, vastly superior alternative to Android & iOS.
For a complex project that is formerly closed, open sourcing is generally a big deal. It costs significant amounts of time and money. Real 'abandonware' only sees open source through an 'unofficial' labor of love by developers (e.g. star control 2). If they truly wanted to abandon, they'd just full stop on all efforts and let it die as a proprietary platform with no hope of revival.
It also doesn't make any support load go away. HP doesn't magically get out of any support obligation they may have by open sourcing it.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
For those who weren't aware, the KDE project is also working on a version of Kubuntu for mobiles.
IMO, we're approaching the point where mobile devices will be like PCs - you can install whatever OS you want on them. Right now the closest thing is people replacing Android with CyanogenMod; even though Cyanogen is effectively an Android derivative, the popularity of doing so demonstrates that alternative mobile OSs can be relatively successful even if not included by OEMs. The main problem right now is that each kernel must be specific to the device, since each one is wired differently and there aren't any standards (in use) for enumerating the various chips available (e.g. bluetooth, GPU, etc.).
I predict that this will be resolved sometime within the next 15 years (probably the next 5-10), as ARM becomes increasingly popular on the desktop/server.
Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.