Technology
giant Hewlett-Packard began executing its plan to deliver an open webOS by
committing to a schedule for making the platform’s source code available under
an open-source license. The company said it aims to complete this milestone in
its entirety by September. The webOS code will be made available under the
Apache License, version 2.0, beginning with the source code for Enyo.
The
company also announced it is releasing version 2.0 of webOS’ innovative
developer tool, Enyo. Enyo 2.0 enables developers to write a single application
that works across mobile devices and desktop Web browsers, from the webOS, iOS
and Android platforms to the Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers. The source
code for Enyo is available this week, giving the open-source community access
to the application framework for webOS.
Enyo
1.0 made it possible to write apps that worked on a variety of webOS form
factors, and version 2.0 extends this "write once, run anywhere"
capability to a range of other platforms, including mobile and desktop Web
browsers.
"HP
is bringing the innovation of the webOS platform to the open-source community,"
said Bill Veghte, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for 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."
Over
the first half of the year, HP will make individual elements of webOS source
code available—from core applications such as Mail and Calendar to its Linux
kernel—until the full code base is contributed to the open-source community by
September. The Apache License, version 2.0, is commonly used to govern
contributions to open-source software projects. It provides a legal framework
that balances open innovation and a dependable user experience, which is
consistent with HP’s vision for webOS.