Hewlett-Packard announced it will release the webOS operating system as open source. Soon the framework ENYO will be also released to the community.

CEO Meg Whitman, who took office in September following the dismissal of her predecessor Léo Apotheker, stated that this move will allow the creativity of the open source community to create a new generation of applications and devices. HP’s goal is to accelerate the open development of webOS actively participating, also to avoid its fragmentation.

Some webOS components can’t be released as open source, presumably because they use some patent HP has a license for or the company owns but doesn’t want to free for commercial reasons, so they’ll be replaced as soon as possible with free components to make them available to the community.

The failure of the TouchPad tablet (photo ©Tom Raftery), which was turned into a resounding success when HP decided to sell it in a fire sale, raised the issue of the future of its webOS operating system, which cost $1.2 billion for the acquisition of Palm, the company that created it.

HP tried to find a buyer for webOS but in this moment in the field of mobile devices it’s difficult to find a place between Android and iOS and even Microsoft is struggling to launch its Windows Mobile. On the other hand, before just shutting down a project that cost so much, HP wanted to assess all its options.

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Since the failure of the tablet TouchPad and the subsequent cancellation of the program to produce smartphone with webOS, there were people who suggested to HP to release this operating system as open source to develop it in a way similar to Android and in the end this was the choice.

Immediately after the announcement, HP CEO Meg Whitman and board member Marc Andreessen granted an interview about the future of webOS. Meg Whitman made ​​it clear that HP intends to use webOS again in new tablets while there are no plans for its use in smartphones.

There are already those who wonder if it’s too little too late for webOS. The new HP tablet with webOS could go on the market next year or maybe not but of course in the meantime its competitors will not stand still. The open source community will bring a new dynamism in the development of webOS and applications new or ports from other operating systems. HP is supposed to have learned the harsh lesson of the TouchPad tablet debacle but it may be not enough.