HP to drop personal systems group?

[KiwiNZ]

Is HP's PC's and WebOS devices dead?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/18/hp-will-discontinue-operations-for-webos-devices/

[Thewhistlingwind]

"HP tablets are an extension of nothing."

Where have I heard that quote before?;)

[KiwiNZ]

The HP's Enterprise Market products are good but their Consumer range have been rubbish for several years.

[sffvba[e0rt]

I have a number of HP products and they are great... Guess I should read the link to see what is happening :p

READ... Sucks, I was looking forward to webOS :/


404

[KiwiNZ]

I have a number of HP products and they are great... Guess I should read the link to see what is happening :p

READ... Sucks, I was looking forward to webOS :/


404

WebOS was too late and too bad to succeed.

[IWantFroyo]

And my TouchPad's returning window closed today...

I really like webOS, and it could've been really big.

Now that I don't have support anymore, I'm thinking of either figuring out how to install a proper Linux distro on the thing, or getting into the homebrew stuff.

EDIT- There's been talk about another company buying webOS. Maybe they will be our saviors and release updates for the TouchPad.

[kaldor]

WebOS was too late and too bad to succeed.

I agree. Also, their advertising was next to useless.

[ElSlunko]

Sad day for webOS users like myself. So much syncing and cloud goodness, not to mention the amazing usability of the UI vs. other OSs. Oh well :\.

[IWantFroyo]

Sad day for webOS users like myself. So much syncing and cloud goodness, not to mention the amazing usability of the UI vs. other OSs. Oh well :\.

I can't even get a refund on my $500 product...
I personally won't be buying from HP again.

[LowSky]

I knew HP made a bad choice buying Palm.

[sffvba[e0rt]

WebOS was too late and too bad to succeed.

I can agree that it may have been a bit late to the party but I have only seen and heard good things about the interface itself...


I can't even get a refund on my $500 product...
I personally won't be buying from HP again.

Is your situation unique to HP? Most companies have a set policy for when you can return goods (based on usage, time period etc.). Or are you concerned that there will be lack of support and/or applications etc. due to the fact that it is webOS based?


404

[LowSky]

I can agree that it may have been a bit late to the party but I have only seen and heard good things about the interface itself...


It is a decent interface, but it only on Palm then HP devices. Palm really died when RIM was the top dog in the market, and was buried when the iPhone was released. When Palm rose like a zombie Android was right there to lop its head off. HP tried to reanimate the project but clearly people don't want it around.

[IWantFroyo]

Is your situation unique to HP? Most companies have a set policy for when you can return goods (based on usage, time period etc.). Or are you concerned that there will be lack of support and/or applications etc. due to the fact that it is webOS based?

It's due to the fact that it's based on webOS. I have to wonder whether or not I'll get my 'promised' free 9 months of webOS tech support.

Speaking of promises HP promised a lot, and then couldn't keep them for two months. I understand companies have return policies, but HP ripped people off.

I also hate how HP dramatically lowered the price of the TouchPad ('so people would buy it and more developers would arrive at the scene'), and then just discontinued it after a bunch of people bought it.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Well... I don't think that a decision like this is taken lightly... and I am sure that breaking news like this sometimes gets it sightly wrong, or don't have all the facts.

I would wait and see what happens. HP is a big company that has been around for ages. Let us hope they have a plan ;)


404

[IWantFroyo]

Well... I don't think that a decision like this is taken lightly... and I am sure that breaking news like this sometimes gets it sightly wrong, or don't have all the facts.

I would wait and see what happens. HP is a big company that has been around for ages. Let us hope they have a plan ;)


404

True. I would love it if HTC bought webOS. Us TouchPad users might eventually get apps and updates, if that happens.

[Copper Bezel]

Wow. What will their printers run? I'd rather have Meego become the Android alternative (for fairly obvious reasons) but this decision is quite confusing.

[neu5eeCh]

That's big news.

Has the tablet really so decimated laptops and desktops? Hard for me to believe. I'm looking forward to reaction on the blogosphere. I had one HP laptop that was shoddily made, but my little dv1000 laptop (which I'm using right now) has been a dream - a great and rugged little computer.

[Ric_NYC]

HP has just announced that it's acquiring Palm to the tune of $1.2 billion.April 28th 2010


OUCH!


:p

[mips]

The HP's Enterprise Market products are good but their Consumer range have been rubbish for several years.

Especially their consumer line laptops. Night & day difference between the consumer line & business line laptops. Typing this on a 6.5yr old hp laptop with zero defects (granted the battery only lasts 2hrs now but that's still good).

[Thewhistlingwind]

Has the tablet really so decimated laptops and desktops?

No.

HP just made shoddy product in their consumer grade offerings.

Besides, this specifically includes their webOS tablets as well.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Thats OK 530... I don't think you are shoddily made... (and you work great out of the box with Linux <3)


404

[kaldor]

No.

HP just made shoddy product in their consumer grade offerings.

Besides, this specifically includes their webOS tablets as well.

My HP laptop is basically falling apart. It does not recieve much physical wear, and doesn't get travelled with very much anymore. Despite that, there are lots of missing bits of plastic that simply fell off over time. Not only that, but there are cracks and splits in the siding of the notebook that happened over time. There's also a huge black stain in the shape of my hand on the rest. Lots of keys (particularly WASD, since I used to game on it) are also misshapen and look like they were squished from overheating.

They do not hold up well over time, and I can see why people consider them shoddy. I've also had the RAM and GPU fail in this machine before, but it was covered under warranty. When it was repaired by HP, the machine was restored to factory settings (removing Ubuntu and everything I had) despite a request to leave it intact. Their curstomer service is quite gross as well.

I do, however, like their desktops; my 15 year old HP Pavilion is still in one piece with no plastic chunks missing.

[Dragonbite]

They should open source WebOS!

That way the community, if there was enough interest, could take it and push it into the market against Android and iOS! It could be a fully open source Linux instead of whatever Android counts as (other than insecure after recent articles and Black Hat mentions).

[kaldor]

They should open source WebOS!

That way the community, if there was enough interest, could take it and push it into the market against Android and iOS! It could be a fully open source Linux instead of whatever Android counts as (other than insecure after recent articles and Black Hat mentions).

What's wrong with Android?

[sffvba[e0rt]

What's wrong with Android?

Oh... it only violates the GPL (thanks Google)...


404

[kaldor]

Oh... it only violates the GPL (thanks Google)...


404

Source? :)

[sffvba[e0rt]

Source? :)

Odd, I read an article a few days ago that sounded all gloom and doom... now all I get are a bunch of conflicting articles... But the article I was reffering to is the fact that once you ship GPL protected software without the source code you have broken the GPL, doesn't matter if you ship it later (something about you need permission from each and every one that has work under the software violated that way to continue...)


404

[kaldor]

Odd, I read an article a few days ago that sounded all gloom and doom... now all I get are a bunch of conflicting articles... But the article I was reffering to is the fact that once you ship GPL protected software without the source code you have broken the GPL, doesn't matter if you ship it later (something about you need permission from each and every one that has work under the software violated that way to continue...)


404

They release the GPL-licensed stuff accordingly. The entire OS is not GPL, and is simply just based on the Linux kernel. A lot of bloggers seem to jump to conclusions too quickly without understanding the subject or license at all. It happens a lot :)

I remember when everyone started crying about NeoOffice violating the GPL when they started charging money for it, for example.

[Dragonbite]

I have a co-worker that came back from Black Hat and he was telling us how Android doesn't sandbox their applications so a malicious application can get access to other application's data on Android devices.

Something similar was happening with ChromeOS which included Scratchpad by default and it was of questionable security.

I'm not sure about Android's actual open-source-ness (it is probably the MORE open source of the available providers), but I did a quick Google and ran across this article.


Google has finally acknowledged that its characterization of Android is false, although it continues to claim that open source nature on its website. How? Google complained this week that Microsoft had no right to show the Android source code to an expert witness in one of those many patent battles being waged on the mobile front. If the Android code were in fact open source, there could be no such restriction on showing the code -- it would be available to anyone. That's what open source means.

[ SOURCE ] Proof Android is not open source -- and why that's good (http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/proof-android-not-open-source-and-why-thats-good-169663)


I will admit, I do not have proof or citations. It is more a "buzz" regarding Androids openness.

Either way, a fully-open-source WebOS a'la Linux would be awesome! Not to mention, could (if it gets traction) shake things up some! Imagine if any smartphone could be dual-boot with its existing one and WebOS(Linux)?

[unknownPoster]

They should open source WebOS!

That way the community, if there was enough interest, could take it and push it into the market against Android and iOS! It could be a fully open source Linux instead of whatever Android counts as (other than insecure after recent articles and Black Hat mentions).

And it will just fragment and fall apart. The FOSS community can't maintain a competitor to Android or iOS. Just look at Meego as an example of failure.

[kaldor]

And it will just fragment and fall apart. The FOSS community can't maintain a competitor to Android or iOS. Just look at Meego as an example of failure.

Exactly my point of view as well.

[Dragonbite]

And it will just fragment and fall apart. The FOSS community can't maintain a competitor to Android or iOS. Just look at Meego as an example of failure.

Didn't MeeGo also die because Intel decided to drop development on it? Actually, it is still alive (last blog post was MeeGo IVI Achieves GENIVI Compliance Submitted by Rudolf Streif on 16 August, 2011 - 09:35 ).

If I remember correctly, WebOS was already built on top of a Linux kernel. So the stretch may not be as far as one thinks. Could even be a boon to the MeeGo group and help re-vitalize them.

[JDShu]

More open source code is always better than less open source code. I don't see a disadvantage to open sourcing WebOS.

[unknownPoster]

Didn't MeeGo also die because Intel decided to drop development on it?



I don't see what Intel has to do with it. The fact is that people abandoned it. Believe it or not, the best solution isn't always to release the source of a project.

[Dragonbite]

I don't see what Intel has to do with it. The fact is that people abandoned it. Believe it or not, the best solution isn't always to release the source of a project.

Intel was a major supporter and did work to make sure it worked well on Intel chips, until they decided to drop it and back, I think, Android.

Nokia is another one and who knows what kind of work is being done after Nokia's recent announcements (Qt, exclusive Windows 7 Phones)

Ultimately it is supporting company's financial pursuit that leads them from project to project. I'm sure it is also a factor in OpenOffice and so far it looks like LibreOffice is doing pretty good "on its own". I know they have corporate sponsors and all, but it is not too heavily controlled by one or another so if one leaves it shouldn't devastate the project.

[Bandit]

This is rather sad and pisses me off. I was looking forward to getting one as it looked great and wasn't an iEvil product.

[KUU]

I always know HP for making some very good IPS monitors.

[KiwiNZ]

I had a play with a TouchPad before they were released. It was now where near as good as an iPad a Galaxy or an Iconia. It was an inferior product and OS.

[oldsoundguy]

HP has been making bad business decisions for quite a few years! Acquisitions that cost them a bundle and that failed before they could break even on the capital outlay.
Some really horrible CEO decisions and some really horrible CEO 's! Failure to get proper distribution on their laptops and desktops for home use (their tie in with Circuit City cost them millions in losses!)

Their enterprise stuff was, and still is, solid stuff. I have a boatload of their "made for businesses" computers and they are absolutely rock solid.

And their printers .. which they will still be making/marketing are still work horses, reasonably priced, and last forever.(their photo printers are not all that great compared to some others that are in the game .. but will suffice for those on a tight budget.)

They came a long way from that garage in Palo Alto years ago, but when the company passed into the hands of the MBA's and bean counters and lawyers, it lost it's soul. And nothing they tried could bring it back. The handwriting has been on the wall for years!

[Thewhistlingwind]

I don't see what Intel has to do with it. The fact is that people abandoned it. Believe it or not, the best solution isn't always to release the source of a project.

Well, It's not even necessarily that. (Though it's true, not every project would work well open source.) It's more a case of market saturation. Android released their open OS first (Or at least, I think they did, point is they had faster growth.), which means anyone else who wants to play the game has to catch up with android. (At minimum.) Android has an extensive selection of applications developed for it. Like the apple iOS has an extensive amount of applications developed for it.

A competing OS would have to grow at a faster rate than android, long enough to overtake androids growth. And not be windows phone. (Microsoft seems to miscalculate how much people actually hate windows, and just use it because it's customary.) Theres two things that keep platforms alive, growth (Or having become customary.) and a steady stream of hackers. If your platform isn't growing at a "Take over the world" pace, hackers better love it. (Linux, for example.)

Or at least, thats my observation.

I'd never heard of meego before reading about it on a Linux blog, mindshare is key.

If I'm wrong anywhere, feel free to point it out.

[Favux]

If this interview with Stephen DeWitt is to be believed: http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/19/the-engadget-interview-hps-stephen-dewitt-discusses-the-state/ they are going to continue with webOS development.

They just aren't going to make the devices for it, they're going to license it a la Google with Android. The fact the announcement occurred just a few hours after the Pre3 finally came out is interesting. Maybe a licensing agreement was just inked?

[Bandit]

Gonna just get me a Dell Duo with Win7 so I can dual boot linux.

[IWantFroyo]

I had a play with a TouchPad before they were released. It was now where near as good as an iPad a Galaxy or an Iconia. It was an inferior product and OS.

webOS seems to sort of have a flow to it. You either love it or hate it.

As for the hardware, it is a really big fingerprint magnet, is heavier than pretty much ALL the competition, and feels sorta cheap. On the upside, it had a nice dual core 1.2 GHZ processor and 1GB ram.

What webOS would really need to work is more users and apps. The TouchPad was in a limbo. The users were waiting for the apps to come, and the devs were waiting for the users to come. HP really should have made more of its own apps for it.

The TouchPad was sort of waiting to die. I'm just sad it did. Hopefully, this isn't the end of webOS.
Maybe I can figure out a way to install Ubuntu on it. That would be nice.