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LG Releases Open-Sourced Version of webOS in Hopes To Push It Beyond TVs and Smart Refrigerators (theverge.com)
LG has released an open-sourced version of webOS that's freely available to anyone that wants to download and poke around the code. From a report: The release of webOS Open Source Edition is meant to act as a catalyst to drive further adoption of webOS beyond LG televisions, smart refrigerators, and the occasional never-to-be-released smartwatch. So, devices like webOS tablets and set-top boxes as pictured in the LG-supplied image above. This is the second time an open-source version of webOS has been released, the first coming under the failed tenure of HP back in 2011. LG's cross-town rival Samsung develops and uses the open-sourced Tizen operating system on a variety of devices including smartwatches, televisions, Blu-ray players, and robotic vacuums.
Since neither TFS nor even TFA bothered--the license is Apache 2.0.
It did work for Netscape. While the company died, its technology lives on in our Firefox browsers.
However for the most part it is like putting your trash on a freighter and sending it over to a third would country to see if any of those people wants your trash.
Now there was a lot of love towards WebOS and many and was ahead of its time in a lot of features. However the question for today is it worth it, with the competitors over the past decade had improved their products, and what was ahead of its time, is now behind the times.
WebOS is akin to BeOS, Amiga, Apple Lisa, Osborn, Sega Dreamcast... Good ideas, just implemented at a time where was too ambitious and people didn't need such features on particular hardware.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Stop giving me a half finished, half documented "open source" operating system that still puts me in your ecosystem.
I just want uboot, fastboot and mainline support.
My current 'HTPC' is a device that I SSH to and run mpv from. I don't want your GUI stack. Just let me write my own stack.
I bought an LG TV about 2 years ago, with the older version of WebOS (2.0), mostly because it was all I could afford. I've been pleasantly surprised that the TV still gets software updates every few months, as do the apps (err ... though the YouTube app is the only one I use).
The TV is still quick and responsive, and plays every video I have on the connected USB drives.
I thought I was going to be disappointed I couldn't afford an Android TV, but am not. So good luck LG.
Call me old-fashioned, but instead of a fridge with a display that I'll never be looking at I actually wouldn't mind a decent fridge with a Modbus RTU (or TCP) interface that lets me read a few coils (door closed? alarm buzzer on?) and registers (current temperature top shelve, bottom shelve, humidity) and maybe write a few registers (target temperature, buzzer activation threshold temperature). This way it could easily be hooked up to an existing home automation system - which then can be configured to present this information and to send a notification when necessary.
You can buy an unlocked phone and flash it as much as you like. Most people go the easy route and accept a carrier locked phone so they don't have to shell out the cash up front.
The problem back then is still the same today - economics. BeOS and co was great, it just was too expensive at the time especially considering the switch in the ecosystem.
It was cheaper to go to Linux if you wanted to switch ecosystems or stay on WinDOS 95 or 98 if you already have the applications than go with BeOS or OS/2 Merlin on PS/2 which not only did not have the ecosystem, the cost was twice or triple the price of a regular system even though the hardware was well beyond the x86 of the time. SGI had the same problem, sure it can render Toy Story but it also cost $10k when a similar render workstation (Dual Pentium) on x86 was $5k or so.
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Why would you want your Vacuum Cleaner on the internet? All it really has to do is suck.
The Palm Pre is still my favourite phone.
Handier, more ergonomic, better than all the enormous phablets manufacturers force on the sheeple nowadays.
Then HP killed it.
A lot of that is "between the ears".
MacOS doesn't have quite the "ecosystem" that windows has, and buying the hardware is more expensive to boot... but even IBM has figured out that the total cost over the economic life of the hardware, MacOS beats windows hands down. And what is it they do, really? Office work. You don't need a gazillion little "apps" to provide one button, or a handful of buttons, to make the thing "go" at every teeny little task. Yet that is what the windows "ecosystem" mostly comes down to.
In fact, I'd wager most office workers --properly trained-- would be more productive with a VT100, as it saves them from uglying-up their output using comic sans or what-have-you. Or fucking off watching youtube all day, or whatever it is they do. So providing them with a system that doesn't bluescreen as much and needs fewer calls to the helldesk to keep going is already a big win. Meaning that the cost of staying in the windows "ecosystem", while not normally very visible, is really quite high.
Which in turn is an indictment of linux-on-the-desktop: Its cost of ecosystem membership comes in the form of a high skill level that most people simply don't have. And don't want to have, for the windows marketeering told them they don't need to. But anyway.
Cost of ecosystem membership is pretty real, but at the same time its perceived cost is headology. redmond still wins, ha ha.
Is it locked down from the user? If so who cares.
Can you actually access this hardware. It can be open sourced and still locked down.
...are stupid.
The "smarts" drive up cost, increase complexity, and reduce your flexibility.
Just give me a great screen with HDMI input and leave it at that. I will decide what smart thing will be hooked up to it.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Unfortunately, technology success and failures and if it is ahead of its time or not... Can only be judged in pass tense.
BeOS and its price, just may had been a hit and considered a a great new product, if perhaps only a small number of elements were different. Lets say Adobe decided to ditch the dying company of Apple, and move over its flagship products to BeOS, or IBM still sour about OS/2 may had moved many of its properties (Lotus Suite) to BeOS as a way to snub Microsoft. Or DOSBox and/or DOSEmu got some of their polish done ahead of time and ported to BeOS. (as MSDos compatibility was a big thing then)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It did work for Netscape. While the company died, its technology lives on in our Firefox browsers.
I don't see that as a bad thing. Keep in mind all the niche iterations - Palemoon, Iceweasel, Seamonkey, and so on. None have critical mass, but all benefit from Netscape.
However for the most part it is like putting your trash on a freighter and sending it over to a third would country to see if any of those people wants your trash.
If the alternative is burning it or burying it, and we're dealing with industrial or consumer waste as opposed to food waste or other biohazards, then that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'd far rather some industrious third world people disassemble a curling iron to heat their water or whatever, rather than just assume it's all actual-junk and burn it. Getting back to the matter at hand, it's not like WebOS can do much worse with its code out in the open. Maybe no one will want to develop for it, but with iOS not being open source at all, and Android becoming progressively more and more closed, an OSS "third horse" is far from an undesirable thing to have.
Now there was a lot of love towards WebOS and many and was ahead of its time in a lot of features. However the question for today is it worth it, with the competitors over the past decade had improved their products, and what was ahead of its time, is now behind the times.
Well, yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, either. See, the past decade has showed us what has worked and what hasn't. Software features which weren't available then, can be readily added now. Those who wish to write those enhancements can do so with the awareness that these are standard features and know their code won't be ignored, and there is a template for the finalized product already. These are all good things.
WebOS is akin to BeOS, Amiga, Apple Lisa, Osborn, Sega Dreamcast... Good ideas, just implemented at a time where was too ambitious and people didn't need such features on particular hardware.
I'd argue that in WebOS's case, the issue was the hardware itself. A plastic phone with chiclet keys that was very prone to breaking in a number of different ways and was a Sprint exclusive...was far from a compelling offer. I always thought Apotheker seemed to have a good idea with using WebOS as a pre-boot environment to unify the company's phone/tablet/laptop offerings, but that never came to pass for some reason. In any case, the fact that it didn't take off 10 years ago is far from a compelling argument that it shouldn't find its way onto Github now.
Since it's reported that the License is Apache 2.0, it can't be Linux, which is GPL. You *may* be able to put Apache 2.0 code under GPL, I'm not sure, but you can only put GPL software under Apache if you are the copyright holder.
Of course, they could be violating the license, I suppose.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Oddly I find WebOS on my LG OLED 55" to be extremely useful, no more XBMC for me. The built in DLNA player is awesome, full 4K streaming with full codec support, my Raspberry Pi's wont do that!. I stream HEVC and x264 all day long w/o issue. When I try to do the same on my Samsung with Tizen, nope, garbage, no DTS support :(. So I have to resort to Plex on Tizen which works ok, but it is missing one key feature, "Auto Play Next", which oddly WebOS has built into its player!
Since it's reported that the License is Apache 2.0, it can't be Linux, which is GPL. You *may* be able to put Apache 2.0 code under GPL, I'm not sure, but you can only put GPL software under Apache if you are the copyright holder.
Of course, they could be violating the license, I suppose.
Apache 2.0 is not compatible with GPL v2 (the linux kernel is version 2 only), but with GPL version 3 (it would be distributable as GPL).
The webOS sources includes a patched 2.6.35 linux kernel distributed under GPL version 2 only (https://github.com/webos-internals/webos-linux-kernel).
You're confusing "smart appliance" with "manufacturer's internet/cloud-connected appliance."
The problem isn't that the device is smart. Smart in this context just means it knows what it's doing, or what is going on around it, or what it's supposed to do.
The problem is that the devices as typically implemented today are taking your data outside your LAN to the manufacturer and any other entity the manufacturer shares it with, while at the same time exposing a considerably wider attack surface to the black hats.
Every device you listed there could benefit you via local integration with home control software.
Every device you listed there has zero good reason to go outside your LAN - you could be contacting a safe server on your LAN from the WAN to see what they're up to, should you want/need to do that, rather than channeling everything through the manufacturer's servers (which also brings a near-certainty of lost support at some random time based on their finances and product cycles.) Or you could keep all interaction with them within the LAN, which is the minimum attack surface choice, and, I would suggest, the sane choice.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
android runs on 54% of devices and Windows 10 runs on 11%. Which do you think is more targeted by spyware?
Since it's reported that the License is Apache 2.0, it can't be Linux, which is GPL. You *may* be able to put Apache 2.0 code under GPL, I'm not sure, but you can only put GPL software under Apache if you are the copyright holder.
Of course, they could be violating the license, I suppose.
Companies with lawyers like Apache 2.0 because of the clauses that say something to the effect "If you sue me, you lose this license to this software".
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
They are releasing the code they do own, meaning the code in userspace which, I am not a lawyer, does not constitute a derivative work.
It's a few buildscripts that cobble together a raspberry pi image from upstream Linux sources, of which you'd hope any modifications to the actual raspberry pi Linux kernel source are zero to none.
The build procedure is tailored to Ubuntu14.04 LTS 64-bit.
I'll be looking forward to a virtual machine image or a LiveDVD version.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Yeah, other comments have clarified that it's not the OS that's under Apache 2.0, but only a bunch of user-space stuff...which would probably be useless to me anyway, since I don't want to have anything to do with IoT.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
WebOS is akin to BeOS
The last fast system in a world of incredibly slow turds? Where can I buy one? But actually I'm going to argue against your premise:
However the question for today is it worth it, with the competitors over the past decade had improved their products, and what was ahead of its time, is now behind the times.
Improved in what way? Samsung is now advertising TVs with quad core processors in order to get their smart interface to run smoothly. That doesn't sound improved, it sounds like it is so incredibly bloated and poorly written than the most basic of functionality needs some serious hardware thrown at it. If WebOS can be more like BeOS it could potentially dominate in this market of frustrated users who are sick of their slow arse TVs unable to even animate a spinny loading wheel smoothly.
The problem with these OS'es is that they don't have any apps. If I run Android on my television I can run gazzilion apps and games for every possible scenario imaginable and I can expect that they will be supported for some time.There is a problem with support for all these third party systems. I can expect that for example Netflix will be supported for a very long time on Android given the user base. But the chances that Netflix will be supported in webOS for the version on your TV in the next 10 years is slim to none. For example I bought a Philips TV with SmartTV OS like 8 years ago and none of the apps work any longer and can't be updated since they connect to some web functions which have been discontinued.
Unless you were saying it in 1990, not your joke.
And that an evolution from the IBM Joke.
...and you forgot to mention something about your lawn..
And Dianne needing to get away from it.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Windows 10 has never run on anything close to 11% of mobile devices. 0.11%, perhaps. It might run on 11% of the total population of computing devices. Windows 10 Mobile itself is spyware, as are all the major mobile OSes, but it's not likely to have been the target of much third party malware because of its tiny market share.
Maybe I'll be able to update mine. For whatever reason it's the only smartphone that I kept - box, manual, adapters, and all. I think I still have the water bottle too! And the wireless charging system was fantastic - I bought an extra one for the office. It really was a well designed system - I miss the central email/calendar subscription portal "one-app-to-rule-them-all" design.
It was a great phone. Well, except the GPS never worked. And the keyboard kept writing repeating letters when pressed. And the battery needed to be replaced every year. ..and....
yeah - yeah - Long live the Palm Pre+ !!!
But it didn't have a Home button. Rather a home-swipe-area. It was cool - it was a step ahead. iOS now has the "card" app system, and the swipe up menu - parts of the webOs are alive in modern phones. The iPhone-X has done away with the home Button too !! Gosh has it really been 8 years? Maybe I should upgrade my iPhone-5 which I bought when the Pre+ went off contract. ha ha.
The basement-dwelling analogy has lost all of its luster by now. Why do people still use it?