I know webOS is far from being relevant in the world of mobile operating systems but it will always be my favorite. Open sourcing really was the right way to go, and I applaud HP for choosing that route.
Open sourcing it makes it effectively a dead-end as a platform. At least closed source it might have been worthwhile as an alternative platform for someone. Hell, maybe RIM could have bought it and been further along than the current Blackberry OS.
Yes, we all get pick at the pieces like buzzards now but that's not a good end for the platform.
Incorrect. There are now two upcoming distributions of webOS - the Community Edition of webOS (WOCE, http://webos-ports.org/) which is still only suitable for devs, and Open webOS (http://openwebosproject.org/) which will appear on future HP devices. Open webOS will not be made available for existing HP devices (like the Touchpad or Pre).
There really is a need for some "legacy phone" OS. There soon will be plenty of pretty powerful phones out there out of support, and something a bit low on resources would be very useful for that. Is the hardware really that splintered?
I've got a Pre and a Nexus One sitting around idly myself. Sure, no multiple cores, but they're not exactly 8 bit computers without MMUs...
I think the problem for Open webOS preventing them from backporting it to older hardware is the proprietary drivers.
There was quite a bit of disappointment with HP when it was announced that Open webOS wouldn't be available for the Touchpad. I can understand their reasons but it does put more pressure on the community edition now. They are doing great things though, so theres little doubt a stable Touchpad version will be available soonish. I don't own a Pre but there seems to be a lot of love for it. I personally think webOS on the Touchpad has a beautiful and elegant user experience but is a bit of an arse to develop for so I'm going to wait until a stable Open webOS release to seriously look at its internals.
