[Noisebridge-discuss] what sort of phone to get, part xxx

[Andrew Fresh]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 03:04:03PM -0700, Michael Shiloh wrote:
> my bad. a quick visit to wikipedia explained a lot.
> 
> how open is webos? from the wp description it didn't look terribly open.

The actual OS is a custom linux distro with an amazing web based gui.
The gui has a proprietary license, but the GPL changes to the core OS
are freely available.

http://opensource.palm.com/

> what makes you feel that it is the os of choice?

To "root" a webOS device, type
"upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart" (the konami code) and flip a
switch to enable developer mode.


But really, several reasons, although slightly worried about it now that
HP has taken over, but so far it has been only good things.  As a big
company it is possible they will decide that the openness is a bad idea,
but so far, it has not been the case.


The attitude of the people at Palm and now the people at HP towards the
devlopers and especially the homebrew community has been one of the
biggest things. 

One of HP's vice presidents speaks freely about overclocking and using
homebrew patches on his device. 

http://twitter.com/#!/rahulsood/status/21382789254

http://twitter.com/#!/rahulsood/status/21523548265


They mention homebrew on their official blog.  

http://blog.palm.com/palm/2010/09/find-your-next-favorite-app-and-maybe-a-new-bff-too.html


Plus a very active well organized developer community.  T

http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Main_Page


> does anyone currently have a phone running webos, and what is your opinion?

I have a Pre, find webOS is the only mobile OS I have used that doesn't
make me want to throw my phone at the wall.  I may not be typical though
as I also choose to use cwm on OpenBSD on my work computer and my
laptop.


> On 09/29/2010 03:00 PM, Michael Shiloh wrote:
> > seems very interesting. i browsed a little, but am confused:
> >
> > is webos a linux distro aimed at palm devices?

Yes.

> > are there any devices running webos currently?

Yes, Pre and Pixi. (well, and Pre+ and Pixi+)

Palm developed webOS as a replacement for PalmOS, they came out with the
Pre and the Pixi then ran out of money and got bought out by HP. So far,
no new phones by HP but good rumors about stuff coming in the future. 


http://www.rahulsood.com/2010/09/test.html


> > what is this pre stuff anyway? a phone? an os? a prefix?

The Pre was Palm's first phone with webOS.

Oh ya, develop a PDK app and win cash

http://palmhotapps.com/

l8rZ,
-- 
andrew - ICQ# 253198 - Jabber: andrew at rraz.net - Twitter: @AFreshOne

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