[stbuerger]

Sorry for starting a new thread about something others have already expressed similar - but as I think not that clear in their titles and message:

It's clear that some devices deserve webOS more than ever.
For tablets it's a must. On TouchSmarts it would be the coolest to imagine. Personally I would love to see/have it on my car navi-media-puter.

But to lay a wide and stable ground .. Let us start where HP had a big mouth but than I believe was just to coward to even further think it - despite make it ..

!!! PUT webOS ON PC !!! (and then start to conquer the rest of the world ..)

[eblade]

I'd guess the only thing really stopping anyone from doing that is that there's no mouse pointer stuff at the moment. Seems like a pretty questionable interface to use without a touchscreen available though.

[ludvball]

How hard would it be to make it work with computers with a touch screen?

[eblade]

Probably not hard to do at all -- the developer emulator already runs on x86. You'd probably just need to get a compilation of a kernel that had the right driver support for your hardware, and then figure out how to get it to boot.

[ArchonAdvisors]

I think it's going to be fairly straight forward in large part once the source code comes out. Way back in the early days of the Pre- still under Palm, I remember someone was able to extract the x86 image from the emulator and boot it on a Dell laptop with minimal tweaking as a proof of concept. The thread should still be around here on the forums someplace.

The main catch, though not that big a deal, will be that every dev will each have to recompile their existing apps to also support x86 chips.

[Vity Traff]

I always wonder why HP didnt use webOS for their touchsmart 5.0 interface:

[kill_dano]

I want to install this on my Car PC. I suppose driver support would be a big deal. Everything pretty much has linux support now adays...

[Saijin_Naib]

Think we could hack in some VIA hardware modules?

Hello mini-ITX beast machine

[hagster]

You can always just use emulator from the SDK if you want to try it.

[jhoff80]

I'd have to think a big part of why webOS on PC never came to fruition is that HP got early wind of Microsoft's Windows 8 plans. With a touch-optimized OS with applications that can be written in HTML and Javascript already coming to every PC in a year, is there really a need for webOS on the PC any more?

[gihmley]

Personally, I think trying to put WebOS on a PC is a huge mistake; WebOS was designed to be a mobile operating system from the start, and if you start trying to add functionality for desktop hardware and peripherals, you're just going to muddy the water and ruin the mobile experience, which is what WebOS has always excelled at.

Think about it this way - has their ever been a desktop OS that worked acceptably well on mobile devices? Methinks not.

Tablets and mobile phones are where WebOS should thrive. But let's pass on porting our favorite OS to PCs (which, IMHO, will likely die off except for in the office in 3-5 years, anyway.) We've got more than enough good linux distros out there for them, until they breathe their last.

Just my two cents...

[spud101]

I agree. Let's focus the efforts on smartphones and tablets. Improve webOS and make it run on modern decent hardware!

[barkerja]

webOS on the PC makes absolutely no sense. That's like building a browser within a browser.

[Mutoidi]

Surely 'The Mouse' will eventually get eaten by the cat anyway.. I sense that M$oft is going 'Touch Screen' because that's the way the rest of the world has already gone anyhow! That's the Future.. now!

[cgk]

I want to install this on my Car PC. I suppose driver support would be a big deal. Everything pretty much has linux support now adays...

Driver support is a very big deal, Without it, you are opening yourself to a world of legal problems in the event of a smash with someone else. Moreover the simple act of hacking it onto your car PC might invalidity your warranty and might be considered a modification by your insurance company. It's an absolutely minefield that most people should avoid.

[eblade]

umm.. i don't think he means as the brain of his car's computer.. i think he means as an "in-car pc" .. ie, like your car stereo, but way more awesome.

[ungenius]

umm.. i don't think he means as the brain of his car's computer.. i think he means as an "in-car pc" .. ie, like your car stereo, but way more awesome.

yup, he definitely means 'in car pc', basically a htpc but in the car, and obviously with a slightly different use case (using the maps etc, or to call people as well as playing video/audio)

[Landslug]

The smaller Touchpad Go in a dashboard mount would be pretty sweet..
Especially cool if it could be linked to some of the car's systems, like heat/AC or even diagnostics.
I still want a new phone first though lol

[OldSkoolVWLover]

I want to install this on my Car PC. I suppose driver support would be a big deal. Everything pretty much has linux support now adays...

I am still thinking of this as a GUI aspect... maybe I'm still stuck in February. But webOS was supposed to be loaded on HP PC's running windows... I have seen other people talking about running webOS on linux boxes.

My current concept would be getting the gui working as an overlay of a linux based car PC. Then we work out the app aspects of running on this skinned linux GUI. It is an imperfect concept at this point, but would be a replacement for the GUIs currently running out there on auto PC's.

Then hopefully with more hands on the OS as a GUI, we see more dedicated development.


Once the source is opened, I think the first step is to see if homebrew can get some extra features added to the bluetooth keyboard input of webOS. If we can get more keyboard features, webOS is very viable as an auto PC and HTPC interface. The other key feature for the potential of widespread adoption would be support for actual bluetooth controllers.

These are the two things you need to encourage non webOS users to give any form of webOS support a shot. The interface is already there for touch, but limited keyboard support and no blue tooth controller support is going to make a lot of auto PC folks say no from the jump off.




One other thought, multi monitor support... at least 2 zones, this may be the best argument for skinning the GUI over another OS distro... not sure. I am still kicking around a lot of ideas in my head, waiting to see what comes out and go from there.

[eblade]

The smaller Touchpad Go in a dashboard mount would be pretty sweet..
Especially cool if it could be linked to some of the car's systems, like heat/AC or even diagnostics.
I still want a new phone first though lol

There -is- a Bluetooth program for connecting to a Bluetooth OBDII reader and reading the car's diagnostic system. There's also a Speedometer/Tachometer app that uses the same sort of thing.