Hewlett-Packard on Friday released Open WebOS 1.0, touting it as a fully functional version of WebOS that works with smartphones, tablets and PCs.
Open WebOS 1.0 supports Enyo 2, HP's HTML5-based WebOS development environment for writing apps that run on both mobile devices and PC Web browsers.
"You can now take apps built on one of the best cross-platform JavaScript frameworks and easily run these same apps on Open WebOS or other platforms," HP said in a post to the Open WebOS team blog.
[Related: Gloom Around HP Deepens After Wall Street Analyst Downgrade]
Open WebOS 1.0 is built on OpenEmbedded, a development framework for Linux on embedded devices, and includes core applications such as email and Web browsing.
HP acquired WebOS in its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm in 2010. After taking over as HP CEO last September, Meg Whitman mulled options for WebOS for several weeks, eventually deciding to make it an open-source project.
Since January, HP says it has delivered more than 75 Open WebOS components comprising more than 450,000 lines of code. The Open WebOS source code is now available on the Open WebOS repositories on GitHub.
HP, which last month spun off its WebOS Global Business Unit into a separate company called Gram, apparently intends to continue investing in Open WebOS despite the current absence of a clear business case for it.
"This is just our first step," Steve Winston, HP's chief WebOS architect, says in a video posted to the Open WebOS Project blog. "We will continue to develop for the platform, and we will continue to add new features."
HP is gearing up to release an enterprise-oriented tablet running Windows 8, but it is unclear where Open WebOS would fit into HP's plans. Whitman has previously alluded to HP releasing a WebOS tablet, and earlier this month said HP may get back into smartphones.
PUBLISHED SEPT. 28, 2012
