does anyone know more about this SW company they purchased? Was it really worth trading it for PalmOS???

And, interestingly, Ari Jaaksi just tweeted that WebOS work continues (but for how long?)...

Unfortunately, even though it practically eliminates a direct competitor, it's probably bad. May scare off potential MeeGo investors because it demonstrates how tough and what a serious an investment it takes to compete against the established Big Boys.

First thought, like others here, went to Ari.
My second thought was, on the back of the Google-Motorola Deal, this announcement could provide a cheap and easy path to a highy developed, enterprise ready smartphone platform for a willing handset manufacturer that wants their own OS (that has a cult following not unlike the N900), and given that hardware/build quality was an issue for previous Palm devices, this may be a good thing.

The demise of WebOS, even in the short term, may drag Meego even further into consideration as a viable alternative, however given the impact "analysts" have on the industry these days, it could also represent as a sign that linux based platforms aren't viable (and I don't consider the crippled, hacked, closed, non upstream patch delivering Android as a Linux platform)

I just wonder if anybody will be surprised if this happens to MeeGo Harmattan?

The last 7 weeks have been hell for HP and the TouchPad. I took full advantage of buying one for $299, even somehow got the original $50 off, so a tablet that was once $499, I got it for $249 alongside 50gb of space via Box.net - supposedly for the life of the tablet (we'll see).

But as it stands, HP might still license WebOS. Whereas Nokia has no intention whatsoever to release any of the Harmattan UI code - it's closed source and zero mention of licensing. Nor does it seem like they're willing to commit to MeeGo despite being the only confirmed handset developer.

So could this happen to Nokia's MeeGo endeavors? Yep. If more announcements beside OEM announcements don't come out from Intel, hell, they might shutter the MeeGo from a public facing, Linux Foundation backed OS to a more embedded, OEM friendly OS instead that still has Intel's backing.

Nokia's announcement of the N9 and subsequent announcements about where it will (and ultimately will not be directly) shipping has caused Intel a bit of grief, I'm willing to bet.

Oh well. Funny part? WebOS on a tablet is how it should have been. Great multi-tasking, a browser that defaulted to desktop, a rather update SDK and free-to-join dev program that was not so exclusive that you felt like you were going to get left out and a device that actually shipped.

Can't say the same about MeeGo for this dev at the moment. No N950, no N9, Aegis looks to be a hindrance and Elop at the helm seems hellbent in making this fail and no other handset has come forward with MeeGo on it.

Hmm.

This reminds me of that tweet that appeared on elopcalypse saying that "don't worry, Meego work is to be continued by Intel". Yes....

I actually agree with your post. Yesterday, I'd say that webOS had more chances of survival than Meego handset. I had widely regarded it as a backup platform; a rescue boat to jump instantly the day this ship sank. And with the news about N9 availability I had already really started considering the possibility of this ship sinking.

However, today my rescue boat sank. I'm even in a worse mood than the day the Elopcalypse happened. webOS had more market share and a CEO that wasn't outright a Microsoft sold-out.


And btw, Aegis is _really_ a hindrance. The webOS equivalent is much, much more lighter. As I once tweeted, during the early days it was easier to run a Ubuntu chroot under webOS than under Meego.
Thanks to the recent acquired ability to disable Aegis this has fortunately changed though.

Already happened in February. Meego has been small internal science project ever since.

I just wonder if same happens to WebOS or will somebody license it from HP?

i like webOS but like all other manufacturers when it comes to hardware they never as good as our nokias, if there was a webOS for n900 i most likely would be using it

HP is going for enterprise SW and services. Autonomy is a well regarded competitor in the Business Intelligence space for enterprises. Autonomy has nothing to do with PalmOS, there is no trade, just a strategic shift.

However, $ 10.2 Billion is a very steep price for Autonomy IMHO. But this is a different discussion, has nothing to do with Maemo, Meego or PalmOS.