open webOS

Open webOS is an open-source operating system from Hewlett Packard and was made available for download in version 1.0 at the end of September 2012. This makes HP's webOS, which was created from Palm OS after HP's acquisition of Palm in April 2010, available in an open source software.

Open webOS 1.0 includes email and web browser as core applications, the JavaScript application framework Enyo 2, and build scripts for Linux and OpenEmbedded. The source code of the touch-optimized open source operating system runs under the Apache License 2.0 and is available in two builds: A desktop build with the core applications and an OpenEmbedded build for running in an emulator.

The underpinning of Open webOS is based on web techniques. At the state of Open webOs 1.0, a roadmap was released with several improvements, including Qt5/WebKit2, open source media and audio components, a BlueZ Bluetooth stack, network management with ConnMan, and an optimization of the SysMgr rendering architecture.

Open webOS was primarily developed for porting to new devices, which HP proved with an all-in-one PC from its own production with the MSWindows operating system. However, Open webOS is not suitable for older webOS hardware, which is not compatible with Linux Kernel 3.3 and relies on proprietary drivers. To make apps for JavaScript frameworks work on Open webOS and other platforms, the 75+ components of Open webOS 1.0 required over 450,000 lines of source code.