HP: webOS Will Be Fully Open-Sourced By September

By published

HP will release components of webOS for the next six months until it's fully in the hands of the community by September.

On Wednesday, HP released a schedule showing the company's plan to make its webOS source code available under the open source Apache License, Version 2.0.

For the uninitiated, the Apache License, Version 2.0 is typically used to govern contributions to open source software projects. According to HP, it provides a legal framework that balances open innovation and a dependable user experience, which is consistent with the company's vision for webOS.

Over the first half of the year, HP will make individual elements of the source code available, ranging from core applications like Mail and Calendar to its Linux kernel. HP will kick things off by releasing the source code for Enyo along with the Enyo 2.0 developer tool, and by September, the full code base will be contributed to the open source community.

"Enyo 2.0 enables developers to write a single application that works across mobile devices and desktop web browsers, from the webOS, iOS and Android platforms to the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers -- and more," HP said in a press release. "The source code for Enyo is available today, giving the open source community immediate access to the acclaimed application framework for webOS."

Here's the schedule, provided by HP:

January
Enyo 2.0 and Enyo source code
Apache License, Version 2.0

February
Intended project governance model
QT WebKit extensions
JavaScript core
UI Enyo widgets

March
Linux standard kernel
Graphics extensions EGL
LevelDB
USB extensions

April
Ares 2.0
Enyo 2.1
Node services

July
System manager ("Luna")
System manager bus
Core applications
Enyo 2.2

August
Build release model
Open webOS Beta

September
Open webOS 1.0

"HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community," said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, HP. "This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform's development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications."

For more about Enyo and the source code itself, head here.

Kevin Parrish
12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • joytech22
    Why over so many months?
    Doesn't it just take one upload and boom open-sourced?

    Or am I missing something here..
    Can someone explain please? :\
    Reply
  • LuckyDucky7
    Great! Can't wait.
    Hopefully independent developers can do what HP could not in terms of bug fixing and other functionality like that.

    Eventually, I'd love to see a port to other devices; since multitasking is handled far better than Apple or Android devices can muster with the cards and the stock apps are also better (one e-mail account for Android? Give me a break!)- WebOS is the only tablet OS I know of (with the possible exception of Windows 8) that can actually run two applications at once.
    For example, I can listen to something on a web page (i.e. a YouTube video) and check e-mail at the same time.

    The thing that I'd really like to see is more virtualization, though. A stock Linux environment can already be produced on this tablet via chroot; I don't see the reason (now that the firmware is open-source it should be a simple matter to remove the security restrictions and allow other things to run in a card, like, say, Android 4.0).

    If only we had more lower-cost webOS tablets that actually worked; though I assume that will come in time since tablet applications aren't all that sophisticated. Selling them at netbook prices keeping in mind their limitations... bundled with a keyboard and Linux environment instantly makes them a REAL computer for REAL work (unlike machines that fake it like the Acer Iconia A500, ASUS Transformer, and Lenovo ThinkPad tablet, among others).

    WebOS's design is just better but it's so kneecapped in its current form.
    Just like desktop Linux is: let's hope that we don't get the fragmentation so characteristic of that design.

    Reply
  • Yes...because then every month we will see headlines such as "HP releases xxx" and it will look like it's HP and not the Open source community that's is actually doing something. This sentence says it all

    "This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform's development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications."

    "Our goal" even when it's expected that others will push forwards development of the OS...

    Obla di obla da life goes on bra...
    Reply
  • razor512
    joytech22Why over so many months?Doesn't it just take one upload and boom open-sourced?Or am I missing something here..Can someone explain please? :\

    if they wanted to, they could just upload the source code to the FTP server then release any special tools if any over the next few days of months. this will allow the community to at least look at the source code.

    HP could be very successful with the OS if they were to deal with it the same way that google deals with android. I have used use the ios, android 2.3 as well as 4 ICS and I still find the UI on webos 3 to be better. Almost across the board, various elements of the OS require fewer actions to get to and the swipe gestures allow items like the task bar and other elements to be hidden, saving screen space but available immediately with a simple swipe.

    Hopefully they continue to develop the OS, and fix some of the performance issues.

    If there is a high chance at future support then developers will release more apps for it.
    Reply
  • Too little too late... touchpad has ICS.... webos, died a long time ago. If HP was smart they'd develop their own flavor of android or start focusing on making hardware to run windows8.
    Reply
  • memadmax
    I'm assuming that the release over several months is part of pumping up the hype-meter.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    All the toilets are blocked at HP headquarters, that's what happens when you try and flush a billion dollars down them.
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    Maybe they want to clean it up and not look like slobs. Scrub all the comments where it shows they stole the code from. Remove unprofessional comments.

    joytech22Why over so many months?Doesn't it just take one upload and boom open-sourced?Or am I missing something here..Can someone explain please? :\
    Reply
  • madooo12
    joytech22Why over so many months?Doesn't it just take one upload and boom open-sourced?Or am I missing something here..Can someone explain please? :\they have to organize code and make sure it's ready for the gus outside, doing one or more of the following (removing spyware/bloatware, add more drivers, organize the way the code looks like, ....etc)

    i guess you heared about lightworks before
    it's quite the same and we;re waiting eagerly for it to be open source
    Reply
  • Catsrules
    joytech22Why over so many months?Doesn't it just take one upload and boom open-sourced?Or am I missing something here..Can someone explain please? :\
    My guess is legal crap, HP need to make sure the 50 billion patients Webos is infringing on, will allow it to be Open-Sourced under the new License, if not then HP needs to work out an agreement with the patent holder or make changes to Webos so it isn't infringing on that particular patent.
    So basically more paper work then actual work on the coding.
    Reply