HP has today decided to contribute to the open source community by granting developers and organizations access to its WebOS mobile operating systems source. This move will enable hardware manufacturers and developers to enhance and use WebOS as their operating system. WebOS could also be more open than the Android OS and will be a great addition to the open source community. HP declared it on their site today.
HP had acquired webOS in a $1.2 billion purchase of Palm in 2010 and since has been trying to make up for the investment. “webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.”
WebOS offers a number of benefits to the entire ecosystem of web applications. For developers, applications can be easily built using standard web technologies. In addition, its single integrated stack offers multiplatform portability. For device manufacturers, it provides a single web-centric platform to run across multiple devices. As a result, the end user benefits from a fast, immersive user experience.
With WebOS, HP also plans to contribute ENYO, the application framework for webOS, to the open source community in the near future for the benefit of the Open Source community.
