Published in News

HP webOS to be fully open-source by September

by on26 January 2012

hp logo_new

Available under Apache 2.0 License

In December 2011, HP announced that its webOS source code would "eventually be made available" under an open-source license, with continued support from the company. The goals presented by this announcement were to "accelerate the open development of the webOS platform," to provide "good, transparent inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation" and "to [allow HP to continue being] an active participant and investor in the project."

On Wednesday, the company released a schedule on its webOS Developer Blog showing its plans to make the webOS source code fully open-sourced and available under the Apache 2.0 License by September 2012. The company is starting with a full open-source release of Enyo, its JavaScript app framework, which will allow developers to distribute Enyo-based webOS apps across other platforms.

From HP's webOS Developer Blog:

Our first contribution is Enyo, our lightweight, cross-platform framework aimed at mobile devices and web browsers. This initial open source release includes Enyo 1.0, which allows current developers of Enyo apps for webOS devices to distribute their apps to other platforms. While this release is not intended to be expanded any further, there is considerable utility for our current developer base in releasing it.

Today’s release also includes the core of Enyo 2.0, which will be the foundation for Enyo going forward. It expands Enyo’s “write once, run anywhere” capability to even more platforms, from mobile devices to desktop web browsers. It works on many of the most popular web browsers, including Chrome, IE 9, Firefox, and Safari.

Over the first half of 2012, the company will make individual elements of the source code available, from core applications like Mail and Calendar to its Linux kernal. By September, the entire webOS code base will be contributed to the open-source community.

"HP is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open source community," said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, HP. "This is a decisive step toward meeting our goal of accelerating the platform's development and ensuring that its benefits will be delivered to the entire ecosystem of web applications."

Last modified on 26 January 2012
Rate this item
(0 votes)

Read more about: