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HP Cuts Staff As WebOS Transitions To Opensource
alphadogg writes "Hewlett-Packard has cut 275 jobs in its webOS group, as part of its strategy to turn the operating system over to the open-source community, according to IDG News Service. HP said last year that it would stop making devices that use the operating system which was developed by Palm for phones and tablets, and later decided to release the software under the Apache License 2.0. As webOS continues the transition to open-source software, HP no longer needs many of the engineering and other related positions that it required before, the company said in a statement. 'This creates a smaller and more nimble team that is well-equipped to deliver an open source webOS and sustain HP's commitment to the software over the long term,' it added."
Further proof that Open Source kills engineering jobs and depresses wages.
Cursed by poor marketing, weak launch hardware and a limited budget from Palm, Webos never really had a fair shot at the market. HP bought them at a time when they were transitioning to a new CEO who wanted to move them in a services direction, and so they never got the love they needed from HP.
Hopefully open sourcing it will give it new life. It would be nice to have a REAL open source platform, and not the pseudo open source with have with Android, where it's really only open to the handset makers and carriers and users have to resort to ugly hacks to make it work.
I wouldn't mind buying a used Android handset or even an iphone 4S and wiping and re-imaging with Webos. That would be awesome! Finally a good quality OS on good hardware. Kickass.
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It took our jooobs!
Here's the secret to immortality:
I lost my shit at "Hewlett-Packard [..] as part of its strategy"
HP and strategy? If you think HP has anything even remotely resembling "a strategy", you're smoking something too strong to be healthy.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
It's a myth that you simply dump something out as "Open Source" and it will magically be supported by some group of volunteers. Most, if not virtually all, open source projects have paid people at companies doing much of the development. Often companies dedicated to that product although those using it contribute as well.
As best I can tell no one else is really using WebOS and HP just said they're not going to provide development effort for it.
I suspect there'll be enough "volunteers" to act as free support bitches and keep WebOS technically alive but for all practical purposes this means it's never going to be on anything but life support.
Or perhaps - Face-Palm OS :-}
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You know who should have bought Palm?
Nintendo.
Integrating PalmOS (even at the PalmOS 4 level) into the base operating system of the DS would have been super-awesome. Even just a PalmOS cart would have been great, maybe with an integrated Bluetooth dialler. A DS in a leather cover would not have looked at all out of place in a business meeting. A target market of 150 million units, the possibility of selling add-on services (cloud sync, Exchange integration, etc), a low cost of entry for new buyers (a DS is very cheap, a new phone is not).
I've not used WebOS but I presume it's rather heavier than the old PalmOS builds used to be ; they are missing a trick. PalmOS was great, even in it's early incarnations. Modern hardware would really make it snap.
The article states that many of the positions which are being cut are hardware related (and they are being moved to new positions within HP not being fired). HP still has quite a few folks who are paid to develop WebOS. Put it this way. How many successful OSS projects have over 300 full-time developers? That many people is massive overkill even if you split WebOS into 4 major projects, and a handful of smaller projects.
Maybe not for tablets/phones but it could be useful for other things that require less computing power. One of the rumors after HP bought Palm was that WebOS would used in printers and other products. It would standardize HP's UI at least and may reduce the complexity of development/maintenance as printers become more connected.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Yeah.... I purchased a brand new 32GB HP TouchPad just recently, as one of Micro Center's special offers. (Basically, they're selling off the last of their inventory of them for $149.95 each if you add it to a purchase of some other new HP computer. My day job wanted me to pick up a new HP desktop PC for them anyway, so I paid the extra and got the TouchPad for myself.)
My impressions of it were:
1. Upon initial unboxing? OMG, HP tried like mad to make this thing copy-cat an Apple product! Same predominantly snow-white box with a lid that lifts off to reveal the contents in a minimalistic type of packaging. Same clear plastic you peel off before using the product. Same type of instruction pamphlet found inside a little cardboard envelope with a cute slogan printed on the front of it. Even the same idea of a uniquely shaped AC wall charger (as opposed to a typical power "brick" like 99% of other consumer electronics products include).
2. When I started giving the unit an actual try, I quickly realized webOS is a really competent operating system for a tablet like this. The "cards" concept works pretty well, and everything has a polished, quality look to it (including such things as the rippling effect when you tap anyplace on the screen). It absolutely needed the latest OS update to be downloaded/installed, to make it work 100% properly though. (I had a Kensington tablet case with integrated bluetooth keyboard, and I couldn't even make the non-HP branded keyboard pair properly until I did the update.) But after that, it "just worked", as the Apple faithful would say.
3. The Touchstone dock/charger is really a "must have" accessory to round out the product. The fact they included inductive charging capabilities in the hardware itself AND designed it intelligently enough so it detects when it's sitting on the stand, and can swtich modes (to a photo frame, a clock, etc.) is VERY slick, and makes you aware it's not just an iPad wannabe after all.
I really believe HP made a MASSIVE mistake by letting webOS go and canceling the TouchPad project. IMO, this was the ONLY real potential competitor to Apple's iPad, and another version or two of the hardware - combined with regular webOS improvements, could have been HP's shining star of a product to carry the whole company. It seems like it was JUST starting to gain the momentum needed when HP pulled the rug out from under it. Horrible timing ....
I don't get all the people rushing to hack these to run Android, quite frankly? webOS is far more enjoyable to work with for a tablet than any of the Android tablets I've seen. Android feels like it was "made for a phone, but shoehorned onto a tablet".