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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."
an OS that won't run on any hardware it was developed for! The programmatic equivalent of locking your keys in your car.
> touchpad won't be supported
"What?!? We only started supporting the mouse in January."
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"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.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
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.
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."