HP's webOS is going Open Source. Now what? | ZDNet

HP's webOS is going Open Source. Now what? | ZDNet

I tend to side with Jason that Apache would make a fine home for webOS. But who will actually develop the code? Coding for substantial projects actually requires substantial investment, however distributed. Volunteers--those who will devote time and energy without pay now or ever--can only do so much and it is not likely that an enterprise, say, would welcome the idea of depending on a volunteer group to sustain an OS it may come to depend upon. So, to develop something that may become pivotal to enterprise usage of the Cloud, say, requires companies and developers to recognise that it makes business sense, not just gives pleasure, to develop (code and all the project engagement implied) something as seemingly belated as webOS. Belated, for the market for tablets and smartthings is already dominated by iOS and Android, and the peripheries by such meritorious OSes as Meego, for instance, and other Linux-based systems. To be sure, webOS has some rather unique and even compelling features--Jason itemises these--but is that enough?

I'd be interested to learn what HP plans. I am sure I'm not alone. I should hope that it recognises that webOS if properly managed would bridge the huge gulf that's so very apparent to all who simply look: Tablets, dominated by iOS and its wannabes, are consumer commodities, still. Their UI is unforgiving to most enterprise use, and that includes education use.

But tablets are the only real option for future computer use. Everything else larger than a phone is too costly in the aggregate: Uses too many resources to make, distribute, maintain, whereas a tablet linked to mesh network (or even cloud, but I prefer p2p meshes) requires far fewer resources in the making and use (less energy to use, for instance). Numerous other benefits are obvious, not least of which is that the tablet is likely to last longer. But we are not there yet. At present, there are something like 1 billion computer users, and most I'd guess use fairly old desktop machines. These will be replaced with better, more efficient devices (most of the old ones will doubtless do their bit to add to global pollution, landfill, heavy-metal poisoning, and so on), but there will also be another two or even three billion coming to the table in the next decade, if not sooner. Plus: more children than ever before and fewer teachers with fewer classrooms with fewer educational resources all married to a changing social structure that, for environmental as well as social reasons is marginalising traditional livelihoods and teaching methods make for a reliance on modern technologies. These include distance learning and, yes, tablets.

Or at least modified tablets, those that can be worked on and are not designed as consumer objects. And webOS fits that bill. It is quintessentially an OS for productivity, not for entertainment. Coupled to a device that supports the usual means of input ("keyboard" or equivalent), and modified to include an ODF editor, webOS could quickly come to dominate the new market--the Real Politik--for real productivity tools for all.