HP announces Open webOS 1.0, will be completed by September
When HP announced that it would be open-sourcing webOS, the entire tech industry was really shocked. Most people expected some sort of sale or revamp of the operating system, but not what I consider a giveaway of the software to developers and the tech community. But that's what HP did, thankfully, and today, the company has outlined what the road to openness will look like until September.
Enyo 2.0 was released today. What you see above is the logo for Enyo, which is HP's app framework for webOS. It's completely browser-independent, meaning that users of any modern browser like Safari, Chrome, or Firefox will be able to access all of webOS' apps right from their browser. Virtually any internet user can access these apps, which makes the value of webOS shoot straight up: every person with a smartphone, tablet, and/or traditional desktop computer can use webOS apps. I don't see how that isn't a great deal for developers.
Also, like I said earlier, HP detailed the roadmap for the open-sourcing of webOS. Every month, the company will push out a fairly significant update to what is dubbed Open webOS' insides. For example, July will bring a system manager and core applications alongside Enyo 2.2.
But the biggest update will be the one that updates the operating system to use the standard Linux kernal. Really, just think of it as Android's kernal. This opens up the opportunity for Open webOS to run on a plethora of Android devices if developers get the drivers lined up correctly.
Open webOS has a lot of potential at the high- and low-end of smartphones and tablets. It could be offered as a budget smartphone since it won't cost anything, or developers could use the saved money to beef up the internals. I hope manufacturers go crazy with it.
[The Verge]
