- Hewlett-Packard’s WebOS operating system, first developed by Palm, has been lauded in many circles for unique aspects of task-switching and notification.
Finally, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has come to a resolution regarding “WebOS,” the operating system developed by Palm and then taken over by HP with the acquisition last year of Palm, only to be left in limbo this year as former HP CEO Leo Apotheker in August discontinued the development of devices based on WebOS.
The company this afternoon said it will donate the code of WebOS to the open source community, though HP will remain “active,” it said, in developing the software.
HP didn’t specify under what open source license it will offer the code, as, for example, part of the GNU Public License, or one of the many others that exist for public domain code. HP recommends you see its developer blog for ongoing details.
There has been intense speculation over the fate of the software, with some suggesting Amazon.com (AMZN) might buy it to add some of the capabilities to its Kindle e-readers. I’ve heard reports in past about Facebook being interested in buying the software, which I wrote about back in October.
Update: Maynard Um with UBS, who has a Neutral rating on HP shares, writes this afternoon that the divestiture of the code may reduce the ongoing investment expense for HP, perhaps to just a penny per share per quarter.
“While we would have preferred to see an outright sale o! f the OS and IP, we believe interest was likely limited,” he writes.
“Even as an open source OS, given the limited success and interest by consumers, enterprises, & developers, we believe it will be difficult to compete against the bellwethers of Apple, Google & Microsoft that have built single, integrated, and large content stores & ecosystems.”
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