12/31, 6:04pm
Open webOS port slow, incomplete, but works
A developer working over winter break from his college has managed to get Open webOS -- the descendant of the operating system that powered Palm and HP's ill-fated mobile devices -- to work on the Asus-produced Nexus 7 tablet from Google. The port is still in alpha stages, showing some lag and freezing while running on the Nexus 7, but the developer was able to get Wi-Fi and Internet browsing working on the device. Thanks to prior work done porting Open webOS to Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, the device even supports a "virtual gesture area," allowing it to retain the gesture-driven interface that was a signature of Palm's defunct operating system.
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08/31, 4:12pm
HP keeps promise of open-source release by September
HP has held to its promise of releasing webOS as open-source ahead of its September deadline. Open webOS is available to download as a beta, comprising of over 450,000 lines of code in 54 components, all of which has been released under the Apache 2.0 license. The release provides two build environments for its use: a desktop build and an OpenEmbedded build.
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05/25, 5:33am
Google picks more former webOS team members
Google is said to have hired the core employees of the webOS Enyo HTML 5 development project team. According to The Verge, the team members were hired individually by Google, but will regroup as a team when they start work with the search giant. Enyo is an HTML5-based application framework for webOS and plays an integral part in HP’s plans to open-source the mobile OS. HP has since issued as statement saying that the staff departures will not impact its planned late 2012 release schedule for Open webOS.
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02/28, 7:50pm
HP webOS group sheds even more staff
Leaks have spread word Friday that HP has cut 275 more webOS team workers. Primarily located around the team's Sunnyvale, California offices, the cuts outlined to AllThingsD would follow a previous 500 from September. An official statement confirmed beliefs that it was a result of open-sourcing webOS and thus not needing either the hardware team or large parts of the software group.
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02/15, 8:45pm
Whitman thinks Android may get lockdown
HP's chief Meg Whitman in a presentation at her company's Global Partner Conference on Wednesday was concerned that Google's likely completed Motorola acquisition would create a chilling effect in mobile. While she knew Apple's iOS by definition was closed, she was concerned Google might flip on the concept of openness now that it had its own hardware manufacturer, according to Channel Buzz. To her, this signaled the importance of Open webOS, since it might be the only option for some.
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01/25, 3:15pm
HP Open webOS ready by September with common Linux
HP has acted on its promise to open-source webOS with an important change that could affect the devices that use it. Now called Open webOS, it's moving to a common Linux kernel that will let hardware makers use much more typical drivers and bring it to hardware beyond what HP originally intended. The OS will sit under an Apache 2 license, which will let others copy code as long as they include the license and attribution.
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