HP CEO: Android Will Become Closed Source
HP CEO Meg Whitman says Android will eventually become closed-source thanks to the Google-Motorola deal.
HP CEO Meg Whitman has been talking smack about Android again after calling Google's highly popular OS "fragmented" just weeks ago. This time she claimed that Android will eventually be closed-source because of Google's approved purchase of Motorola.
This of course comes from a company that purchased Palm seemingly for its OS, failed in its attempt to launch products based on said software, and then decided to release it to the developer community under the open-source Apache license. Earlier this week HP released the source code to the webOS web browser and other code, the second stage in its overall roll out to get webOS to developers by September.
Google revealed back in August 2011 that it would buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion USD. The deal was just approved by European and U.S. regulators this week. Google claims that Android will remain an open-source OS despite claims stating otherwise. The company also said it would assure fair licensing for Motorola patents.
During a speech at the HP Global Partner conference in Las Vegas, Whitman said it could take up to four years for the complete impact of webOS to be felt. But that's OK. The industry needs another OS, she said, and HP has plenty of patience. She said she's actually rather excited about webOS, and pledged that the company will continue to contribute to its development.
Talk about webOS was rather short in her speech, as she moved on to tell about how she planned to change things once she became CEO. "When I came in I thought the most important thing I could do is remove noise from the system and create stability," Whitman said.
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Meg, you are on track with open webOS, please just stick with that.
Exactly the kind of comment we would expect from the CEO of a competing company.
Change for change sake. This sounds more like "Daddy, look what I can do!" than any sort of simplification for end users.
Maybe closed source isn't a bad thing. Think about it, Ubuntu is really nice, but you have to be a power user to get everything working right and you have to occasionally figure out problems with it. When you compare it to Windows or OSX, it is not nearly as solid.
Translation: "My mobile open-source OS isn't as popular so I'm going to insult the most popular open-source OS!"
LOL i think he meant webOS. that sounds like something HP would do to open source software
Maybe closed source isn't a bad thing. Think about it, Ubuntu is really nice, but you have to be a power user to get everything working right and you have to occasionally figure out problems with it. When you compare it to Windows or OSX, it is not nearly as solid.
Closed source prevents innovation. We'd still be stuck with Commodore 64's with that logic.
So this is like in Rocky after he went down the second time and then got back up and started shouting at appollo creed "my momma can hit harder than that".
I like WebOS - Really! I just think it is a little too early to be trash talking an operating system that has done fairly well while your operating system has had numerous attemps and failed. To be honest, the last failure was all on HP, I think they gave up too early.
Meg Whitman is an idiot and is following the one that just left. Yes, Android is fragmented... but ICS should and future releases should tighten it up. Inteface skins is not a major issue, its the deployment of updates.
4 years we'll feel the effects of WebOS??? Really? I guess any day now we'll suddenly be hit in the face with the effects of Linux on desktops, Microsoft and Apple will be DESTROYED.
WebOS is at the best place to be for it to survive... open source. Its a tinkering OS... not much else.
I just think it is a little too early to be trash talking an operating system that has done fairly well while your operating system has had numerous attemps and failed. To be honest, the last failure was all on HP, I think they gave up too early.
HP did not give up early, they DON'T have the talent or culture to make WebOS successful. HP doesn't actually INVENT anything... they hand their specs to contractors to meet certain price points and out poops out a product from China.
WebOS is a good OS, not perfect - but for sure, deserved a better run. What I experienced with the Touch-pad was an unfinished product with crappy support and cheap materials. Palm is officially dead - the company that made PIM mainstream.
But Android and Apple will continue to improve their OSes and leave WebOS in the dust.
Android cannot be closed sourced, because it is based on Linux with is open source, using the GPL-2 copyright. Thinking you can take an open source program and make it closed source is either clueless and incompetient or lying - take your pick
i would not mind if google stop offering android to other makers and just forcused it on motorola devices ... as long as they made sure the devices got updates right away and no carrier add on crap
Have own unsucessful OS.Complain about how bad sucessful OS is.= Woman logic
u made one mistake... saying women use any logic
u made one mistake... saying women use any logic
actually, your wrong, women do use logic, problem is that it based on a different set of rules than man's logic.
I second jeffunit's comment, also there is a plan (already started) to incorporate all android kernel changes into the mainline kernel thus making android keep up with current kernel and not lag so much back.
I do foresee google creating a closed OS later on based on the experience they acquired from maintaining android.
Sorry Meg but I flat-out refuse to believe anything HP says until they make up their mind about what to do with Web OS.
shut up Meg.
i would not mind if google stop offering android to other makers and just forcused it on motorola devices ... as long as they made sure the devices got updates right away and no carrier add on crap
That would just turn Android into Google-branded iOS.
shut up Meg.
hahhahahahha
Well she's definitely right or wrong about this one. I'm absolutely sure she is either correct or incorrect about the Google's plans.
Meg, please shut your pie hole. You are spewing fud.
Translation from Meg-Speak:
"We hope like heck they do something that stupid so that we might eventually make webOS relevant again."
Didn't you already publish this story a couple of weeks ago?
This coming from the brilliant minds that couldn't decide if they still wanted to make computers or not. From the people that decided to $h1tcan web OS 30 days after releasing their first product. From the a holes that decided personal printers cost $20, but ink costs $50.
I find it hard to believe pretty much anything from them.
Idiot. Gotta wonder how she managed to figure out how to do ebay :-P
HP was stupid to hire her too...
Surely the current Android Licencing means that to make it close source they would have to start again with all new source files etc??? The cat's out of the bag, no getting back in.
Idiot. Gotta wonder how she managed to figure out how to do ebay :-P
HP was stupid to hire her too...
thats what HP does best . make bad moves and continue selling shoddy products at high prices
So this is like in Rocky after he went down the second time and then got back up and started shouting at appollo creed "my momma can hit harder than that".I like WebOS - Really! I just think it is a little too early to be trash talking an operating system that has done fairly well while your operating system has had numerous attemps and failed. To be honest, the last failure was all on HP, I think they gave up too early.
Yes, let's look at all of the great innovations Linux has given us... hmmm... hmmmm...
They're trying too hard trolling Android. And that photo of her is just the icing in the cake, i can picture that smug smile while saying that.
Meg, you are on track with open webOS, please just stick with that.
Likely this will not come to pass, all of the code that has already been open sourced for Android cannot be undone. Once open, its open for good. So if they decided to close it, they would have to do some major work at removing all the open source that is directly integrated into the primary product and or re-design it so that it works as a modular framework, where some modules are open and others are closed. Otherwise they will be breaking the open source licensing.
I think she should stick with things she understands.
Closed source prevents innovation. We'd still be stuck with Commodore 64's with that logic.
Mac OSX is built on Free BSD, which is partly an open source platform. So without open source you wouldn't have OSX.
Microsoft Windows is really the only true closed source platform left in the industry, and they are still 85% of the desktop market share. That said, most standards today are generally driven by open source technologies, so the standards that all of these systems are built upon largely came from open source development.
Correction, windows is 92% of the market as of this month.