Open WebOS Releases Core Apps; Reveals Touchpad Won't Be Supported

Caught via the H is news that more components of webOS have been released: "The core applications provide a comprehensive set of platform user applications, including Email, Calendar, Contacts, Memos, Accounts, Clock and Calculator." Additionally, HP has opened up the development branch of system manager: "We are excited to open up the active development branch of our upleveled System Manager. This major upgrade incorporates the latest QtWebKit and Qt technologies in an improved architecture. Modern QtWebKit now underlies all applications, providing state-of-the-art support for HTML rendering and I/O. The latest stable release of Qt has been integrated across the system, eliminating alternate rendering paths and providing a clean base for the future. These changes bring enhanced stability and performance to Open webOS." As always, source can be had from the Open webOS github. A bit of bad news for existing device owners, however: "...we are aiming for support on future hardware platforms where SoC’s support Linux 3.3+ kernel and where open source replacements for proprietary components are integrated. Existing devices cannot be supported because of those many proprietary components, including graphics, networking and lack of drivers for a modern kernel." Existing device owners will have to live with the "webOS community edition."

Comments

Cool

[ThatsNotPudding]

an OS that won't run on any hardware it was developed for! The programmatic equivalent of locking your keys in your car.

Re:Cool

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

an OS that won't run on any hardware it was developed for! The programmatic equivalent of locking your keys in your car.

Not that I'm exactly sanguine about WebOS's chances; but 'the hardware it was developed for' is sufficiently banal that(crypto lockdowns excepted) finding other targets shouldn't be that difficult. The OS doesn't require any particularly notable button layout(the phones did have hard keys, to make typing more pleasant; but a servicable soft keyboard was added for the tablet, and the only other requirement is a single 'back-to-home-screen' button).

It does kind of suck for owners of the current hardware(me included); but there isn't anything that would make WebOS look/feel problematic on most devices that presently ship with Android, assuming the right SoC.

Of Mice and Men

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> touchpad won't be supported

"What?!? We only started supporting the mouse in January."

Re:Of Mice and Men

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm quite sure they meant the HP Touchpad

Ever heard the joke about the airplane? Never mind, way over your head.

will open webOS support PDK applications?

[ardiri]

this is a big question for me (as a developer).
or will open webOS will only support enjo (HTML5, CSS et al) with no native application support (existing webOS applications).

Re:will open webOS support PDK applications?

[aitikin]

That's a great question, and one I would ask Derek to ask when he's at Enyo HQ.

what hardware WILL be supported?

[ThorGod]

"we are aiming for support on future hardware platforms where SoC’s support Linux 3.3+ kernel and where open source replacements for proprietary components are integrated. Existing devices cannot be supported because of those many proprietary components, including graphics, networking and lack of drivers for a modern kernel"

Are there any tablets that meet those requirements? Are there even any planned?! I think this just became another hypothetical OS ... good for contributing to if you just want to pad your resume.

Re:what hardware WILL be supported?

[gl4ss]

When android development was started, there weren't ANY devices available that would run it.

Do you really assert that this is a vaild reason?

..and android doesn't have open gpu drivers now so?
the real question is are they doing anything which would warrant hope that tomorrows pad's will ship with gpu's with non-proprietary drivers?
it would actually sound more viable if they were doing work on targeting proprietary driver socs and systems - for example by doing active work to target android kernels/systems as the target. now it really does sound like a pi in the sky dream.

Re:what hardware WILL be supported?

[__aaltlg1547]

Google had the money to ensure that Android capable devices would be made.

Re:If you really think about it

[Desler]

It's going to grow by not being able to run on anything?

HP saying "bye WebOS"

[PineHall]

This is HP saying you are on your own. It looks like HP has decided to have nothing more to do with WebOS. This is HP cutting its losses, and I think it hurts HP's standing with the WebOS community and with open source in general.

Call to Arms for the webOS Community!

[tony.damato]

Yeah, it is a slap in the face, but understandable since the old hardware needed proprietary drivers to work.

However, there is good news, as mentioned in this post at webOS Nation :

"There are two things to keep in mind moving forward. One: there's a large and growing number of Android devices out there that offer support for the Linux Standard Kernel 3.3, and given the number of devices supported by the open source CyanogenMod Android project there are plenty of drivers available for those components. Two: The webOS homebrew community cannot and will not be held back. They've already started working on the webOS Community Edition release of LunaSysMgr to see how well they can get it to work on the Pre3, and it'll only be a matter of time before they figure out how to get the goodness of Open webOS to work on our current webOS devices, HP be damned."

I submit a conspiracy theory

[gl4ss]

and it goes like this: "HP was encouraged by MS to buy up palm to take webos and palm out of the market once and for all. HP agreed by getting huge discounts in Windows licensing, enabling them to turn net income of 1.5 billion in a quarter when they're doing bad. HP Touchpad fits as a prototype WinRT device and once it became apparent WinRT was going to take longer than expected and the released in unison with Win8-desktop HP dumped all their arm tablets off."

of course it doesn't fit too well with some personnel changes at HP, but HP ships the most windows pc's of any manufacturer and now have experiment with putting up a product line for an arm device.

New Speak garbage

[fibonacci8]

For the sake of the English speakers here, what does "Caught via the H" mean?

I have an HP Touchpad

[Tokolosh]

I have not booted into WebOS for two months. The Cyanogenmod android is grreat. Only hangup left is the camera, which apparently is stymied by a closed-source Qualcomm driver. Why Qualcomm will not release driver info is beyond me - what do they have to lose?

Anyway, WebOS is history.