[GRLUG] WebOS for HP machines

[Kyle]

On 3/10/2011 5:42 AM, John-Thomas Richards wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 12:03:07AM -0500, Bob Kline wrote:
>    
>> http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_17575829?nclick_check=1
>>
>> **
>> In an interview published this week, Apotheker told Bloomberg News that HP
>> intends to offer the webOS software along with Microsoft's well-known
>> Windows operating system on all of its PCs. The company hopes to increase
>> the adoption of webOS, both by PC users and by independent developers who
>> create applications for PCs and mobile gadgets.
>> **
>>
>> It will be interesting to see how many takers
>> HP gets.  It can probably knock $50 off the price
>> of a machine by not having to bow to M$.
>>      
> Will this save them from having to do so?  Won't webOS be shipped
> *along with* Windows?
>    

I've heard conflicting reports on this - that either Palm webOS runs 
within an emulator under Windows or that it is a separate option in the 
bootloader.  Until the products are shipped, we may not know for sure 
exactly how it will work.  But either way, I think part of the goal is 
to have a unified platform from printers and portables (phones, 
netbooks, etc.) all the way up to desktops, which allows programmers to 
build one app that runs anywhere.  Kind of the same thought as Android, 
really, but from a different publisher.  And the way that Palm webOS 
apps are built, it's entirely possible for them to work this way.  Apps 
are typically built using HTML/CSS/JavaScript, so UI elements 
automatically reconfigure on the fly for screen configuration changes 
(rotation, etc.), which means they can easily leverage their current app 
catalog on a desktop and ship a desktop OS that comes with a decent 
collection of available programs, easily installable and 
free/inexpensive out of the box.  As I see it, if you look at it from 
HP's perspective, it makes a lot of business sense for them to expend 
the effort.

Anyway, that's my two hundredths of a dollar.

- Kyle

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