Computerworld - February 13, 2012

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HP Readies Open-Source webOS Release

AP PHOTO/MARK LENNIHAN

GOVERNMENT

First White House CTO Chopra Resigns

ANEESH CHOPRA, who served for almost three years as the first federal CTO, has resigned amid speculation that he will run for lieutenant governor of Virginia.

Chopra, appointed by President Barack Obama to what was a newly created position in May 2009, focused on technology policy. He worked on modernizing the federal government’s IT infrastructure, pushed for a nationwide public safety broadband network, helped develop Internet policy and assisted in implementing Obama’s open-government strategy, said John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a recent blog post.

In September 2009, Obama said Chopra
was “charged with looking at ways technology
can spur innovations that help government do
a better and more efficient job.”
Mission accomplished, Holdren said.
“Aneesh has led that charge in an energetic, in-
novative and amazingly effective manner, and
sowed the seeds necessary to bring our govern-
ment into the 21st century,” he wrote.

Hewlett-Packard announced plans to release the code behind webOS this September under the Apache License 2.0.

The license allows developers to mix open-source code with their own inventions and sell products using the code.

The webOS operating system was developed by Palm for phones and tablets. HP acquired Palm in 2010 and late last year announced it will no longer manufacture devices that use the software. Instead, HP said, it will release webOS to the open-source community.

HP laid out a timeline for releasing components of the software, starting with Enyo 2.0 and its source code. With Enyo, developers can create applications that work across different types of webOS-based devices. Enyo 2.0, released in late January as open-source software, adds support for other mobile operating systems. Now, developers can more easily write applications that work across webOS, iOS and Android devices.

The full open webOS beta will be published in August, with Version 1.0 coming out in September.

In comparison,
Symbian took a
year and eight
months to release
its code, before it withered away
battling new operating systems
from Apple and Google.