WebOS is the mobile operating system created by Palm (which is now a part of HP). When I decided to get a smartphone, I went through a list of my priorities. Some of these were hardware related and others were OS related. Among these prerequisites were that it be open source in some way and that the GUI be elegantly designed and intuitive.
iOS has an elegant GUI, although the notifications are pretty obtrusive, but the 'gated community' approach that Apple takes to iOS (and most of their products) is a huge turnoff. If I buy a phone, it is mine, not Apple’s. If I want to open it up or download software from somewhere other than the highly restrictive App Store, then that’s my business. If it voids the warranty, fine, but don’t install software that will destroy (brick) my phone if I choose to do that.
On the other end of the spectrum was Android. I’m a big Google fan, I use a lot of their services (gmail, google voice, docs, Picasa, videos, calendar, tasks, notebook, etc.) and unlike iOS, Android is much more flexible and open source friendly and I really wanted to like Android. But the interface… As I have said many times, Android feels like its interface was designed by an engineer, not by a designer. It lacked (and still lacks) elegance, smoothness and an intuitiveness to the interface. Using it is like trying to talk to an android instead of a human being.
The third path I considered was WebOS. WebOS (on the Palm Pre) has an incredible GUI. Simple, intuitive, beautiful. Nothing more need be said about it. Palm (and now HP) also took an approach to open-source and homebrewing (known as jailbreaking to the iOS crowd) that goes above and beyond. The ability to put the phone into Developer Mode (to jailbreak it) is built into the OS, just type in the Konami code and it unlocks. Easy as pie.
This is where a group known as WebOS Internals comes in. WOSI is a group of homebrewers dedicated to improving and pushing the limits of WebOS. The amazing thing is that HP (formerly Palm) not only tolerates the work they do, but supports it, praising the community in presentations, looking on at Developer Days as they disassemble new hardware and Frankenstein it with old hardware so it will run on unsupported networks and even donating expensive servers to WebOS Internals so they can distribute their work. The latest version of WebOS (v. 2.1) even incorporated some of WebOS Internals work into the operating system. Can you imagine Steve Jobs looking on as someone opened up an iPhone to make it run on Sprint?
When that latest OS version came out, it was announced that it probably wouldn’t be available to older devices like the Palm Pre. Hardware issues were the cited reason, but given the lag on the release of the update prior to that, it seemed more likely that the carriers didn’t want to take the time to review the update, and also that continually updating old hardware would discourage users from buying new hardware. When one provider finally released an update, WebOS Internals swooped in and, totally legally, set up a simple process that combined the new OS installer with the older ones and made it compatible for most of the so-called legacy devices within a matter of a few hours.
By releasing the update package (known as a WebOS Doctor) HP knew what WOSI would do (and has done) and enabled them to do what HP’s relationship with the carriers prevented them from doing, which is get the latest version of the operating system to those who want it. As a result, instead of a 600mHz Palm pre running WebOS 1.4.5 I’ve got a 1gHz Palm Pre running WebOS 2.1 with no fear of Big Brother looking over my shoulder to take away or brick my phone. What’s more, these changes were incredibly simple to make, I’m no computer whiz by a long shot, I just like to tinker a little and thanks to HP and WebOS Internals, I can.
