HP Does The Right Thing In Open Sourcing WebOS
Mobile OS gets another chance at life as an open source project
By Alan Shimel on Fri, 12/09/11 - 3:06pm.
Every once in a while things go the right way. Today's announcement by HP that they will open source WebOS is an example. The venerable OS seems to have more lives than a cat. After Palm nearly went under, only to be rescued by HP for a mere 1.2 billion dollars, PalmOS/WebOS seemed to have a bright future again. Then HP after probably pouring in another couple of hundred million dollars decided to pull the plug on their mobile business after just a few weeks out in the market. It seemed that the promising WebOS would die a quiet death.
Of course when HP did this they blew out all of the Touchpads they were sitting on, which created a bit of a gold rush as people snapped up the tablets for a hundred dollars, with many paying much more than that. As a result Touchpad became probably the 2nd or 3rd leading tablet in the market.
Not to be an I told you so, but let me be an I told you so. I wrote last August when HP first announced they were exiting the mobile market that the right thing for HP to do was to open source WebOS.
As part of the announcement HP said that they will continue to develop and devote engineering resources to WebOS. But now developers and other manufacturers can also work with the code. I cannot wait to see the community reaction to this. The Palm/WebOS community was small, but fanatical.
Of course real success will come when we see more mainstream apps for WebOS devices. Having used a Touchpad for months now, that is the biggest thing I see. It just doesn't have the depth of apps that Apple and Android do. The OS itself is actually pretty good. Having used both Apple and Android phones, WebOS is great. It could be better, but it is a major league mobile OS right now.
For those worried about Android's patent problems, WebOS may be just what the doctor ordered. Part of the reason HP paid so much for Palm was the patent portfolio that came along with it. I have not seen anything about those patents being part of this deal, but with WebOS being open source, you would have to assume HP is not going to enforce patent claims on WebOS. The icing on the cake would be for HP to donate those patents to be used only defensively.
I would assume it won't be long until we see phones, tablets and other devices sporting WebOS out in the market. Also this could open the door for HP to start making WebOS devices again too.
All in all what a nice Xmas present for the open source mobile community. Now lets see what comes of it!
- About Open Source Fact and Fiction
As co-founder and Managing Partner at The CISO Group, Alan Shimel is responsible for driving the vision and mission of the company. The CISO Group offers security consulting and PCI compliance management for the payment card industry. Prior to The CISO Group, Alan was the Chief Strategy Officer at StillSecure. Shimel was the public persona of StillSecure as it grew from start up to helping defend some of the largest and most sensitive networks in the world.
Shimel is an often-cited personality in the technology community and is a sought-after speaker at industry and government conferences and events. His commentary about the state of security, open source and life is followed closely by many industry insiders via his blog and podcast, "Ashimmy, After All These Years" (www.ashimmy.com). Alan is now also a regular contributor to The CISO Group’s security.exe blog and podcast.
Alan has helped build several successful technology companies by combining a strong business background with a deep knowledge of technology. His legal background, long experience in the field, and New York street smarts combine to form a unique personality.
Disclosure: The CISO Group sells a software-as-a-service PCI compliance application called SAQPro. The company is independent and does not represent any other vendor's products as a reseller.
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