After Meg Whitman took charge of HP after the disastrous rule of King Léo, she announced that HP would be open sourcing WebOS. Today, we’re seeing the first step in that process happen with the release of “Enyo,” HP’s JavaScript application framework.
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.
More interesting, we’re promised that HP’s implementation of WebKit as well as their own Linux distribution will be made available in the coming months. It’s nice to see that WebOS isn’t dead, but it certainly isn’t thriving. This truly is a Hail Mary in hopes of salvaging the rubble that HP’s previous leadership created. Let’s hope that this at least leads to other platforms implementing some of the nicest aspects of WebOS. Even if it doesn’t take off, it might be useful for future products à la NeXTSTEP.
What do you think of this news? Will WebOS be able to survive as an open source project, or will it be broken down and used for parts? Sound off by leaving a comment below this post.
Source: HP webOS Dev Blog
Image Credit: dground
