CIO — HP has made its expected announcement regarding what it plans to do with WebOS. It is going the open source route and is positioning it as an alternative to the other contenders for the next desktop. This desktop isn't focused on a standard desktop or laptop, but encompasses all form factors from smartphones and tablets to Smart TVs. HP is using the Java-like message of "write once run everyplace" that has been promised, but never truly delivered by Sun's old Java platform.

The operating system market has been an ugly one since the beginning, wiping out once powerful vendors such as Atari and Commodore in the early years; crippling IBM, which had to exit the segment over a decade ago; and claiming upstarts like Palm, NeXT and Netscape during the process. Right now there are three viable operating systems contenders: Windows dominates PCs; iOS, which is slated to replace the MacOS at some point across Apple's ecosystem; and Android, another fork of Linux from Google. ChromeOS and MeeGo are all but stillborn, Symbian is on its deathbed and Metro has yet to be fully market-tested.

WebOS the Promise

WebOS, a Linux derivative, is kind of a blend of ideas. It has aspects of Java in its messaging in that it promises to provide a write-once-run-in-any standards-compliant browser message. And in a world where increasingly apps are hosted, or are very light, and sold in app stores, this model—which wasn't viable a few years ago—is far more viable now.

It still will have trouble with resource-intensive applications that will need to get intimate with hardware in order to perform adequately but, increasingly, that kind of performance is being handled by services like OnLive, which can resource them from the cloud. Local applications, due largely to the new tablet-driven requirements of small size and long battery life are increasingly very light and that should lend them to the WebOS model.

WebOS has little old legacy code to deal with and can be more aggressive with newer concepts such as visualization and compartmentalizing some activities (business apps) from others (entertainment). It was also designed against a lower performance (ARM) hardware model that Microsoft is currently struggling to adapt. In short, it may be closer to where the competing platforms will be at some future time in terms of technology. Unlike iOS, if you want to license it to resell on your platform, you can and it should be more secure (thanks to HP's security focus) than Android, which has struggled with malware.

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