webOS to be open source

[Antony]

HP announced that they will make the webOS mobile operating system acquired (when HP purchased Palm) last year open source.

Earlier this year, the company announced that it would be spinning off its PC division and exiting the tablet and smartphone markets (i.e. webOS). HP later reversed course on its planned PC unit spinoff, but has continued to weigh its options for webOS amid the discontinuation of its mobile hardware effort.

Despite making webOS open source, there's no words on if HP will make any webOS based mobile hardware.

source: HP open sources WebOS: The fallout (ZDNet)

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[Edward]

Netscape open-sourced the code to its web browser. Today, we have SeaMonkey , Firefox and Thunderbird as a result.

I could see some enterprising folks picking up the pieces of webOS and possibly doing something with it, but where we already have Android, Windows Mobile and the OS inside the iPhone (I do not know the name of that.), could the mobile marketplace be able to support a fourth OS?

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[Antony]

It's called iOS.

However, Android is open-source already. Another open-source to join the competition?

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[Edward]

Re iOS. Thanks.

I'm sure it's possible to have two open-source operating systems in the mobile marketplace, but it would remain to be seen how long it might take.

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