And here’s to the good stuff. When HP bought Palm a few weeks ago, the computer giant made it very clear they are going to put the webOS on a tablet, and maybe even on a netbook. While it has never been a secret that the webOS actually runs just fine on x86, nobody ever tried to actually boot it on real hardware. Until now, that is – and it works, without any modifications.
PreCentral reader cdowers managed to get the webOS running on a Dell C600 laptop, and it took him little to no effort at all. He just took the webOS image from the emulator, stuffed it on an IDE hard disk, and it booted successfully without any modifications.
There are problems, of course. Currently, navigation is done through the keyboard alone, so mouse support would really be a welcome addition. At this point, it can only run at phone resolutions, but it shouldn’t be too hard to support PC resolutions, since “many of the apps seem to be okay at higher resolutions” (the webOS has always been designed with multiple resolutions in mind).
There are more issues to overcome than just these, of course, not least of which the fact that distributing such an image would probably not be legal. Luckily, though, Palm is very supportive of the geek community, and they haven’t undertaken anything against similar modifications in the past.
If you want to help out, follow this thread and offer your services.
But as Thom mentioned, the exciting news is happening in the mobile arena.
Anyway, it looks like a good development. Perhaps HP could use the new Atom processor instead of ARM.
Edited 2010-05-16 19:06 UTC
But ARM based cpu’s like tegra 2 offer all the performance we could need on a tablet at much greater energy efficiency; you can never have to much battery life.
I use android, and would love a tablet that runs android on good tegra based hardware in a 10 inch form factor. (the ICD gemini looks good having a more proper screen resolution rather than 1024×600) I can’t help but feel that webOS just seems to be perfectly suited for larger tablet style computers. It has a good flow to it and any tablet running webOS with the specs I mentioned has a good chance of getting my money.
Thinking about it, I guess you’re right. The HP tablet won’t be a PC per se, but it will be a completely different system than the other Linux distros.
It won’t matter if it’s run on arm or X86 because it will it own specific applications.
Therefore, my guess is that it will be taking the route of the “iTable”.
Dangerous words. Everyone should know by now that these words will no longer ring true within months of release of any piece of hardware. As you said about battery life, there are others that believe the same about processing power and capacity (memory, storage space, expansion capabilities, etc.).
The moment there exists a piece of hardware with lofty potential, there is someone out their aiming to maximize (or exceed) that potential.
Don’t get your hopes up about tegra2. nvidia has a very poor record of otheros support, and arm platforms are all about allowing new innovations in operating systems. Faster adoption would occur if the mali, sgx, tegra or specs for whatever ati’s part were opened up.
Screenshot?
PS: I don’t want to see the video
If you don’t want to see the video, I took these “screenshots” from the video:
http://mereo.ca/~quake/temp/palm1.png
http://mereo.ca/~quake/temp/palm2.png
http://mereo.ca/~quake/temp/palm4.png
http://mereo.ca/~quake/temp/palm5.png
Of course, it does. Whatever you call it, it’s still a Linux and Linux runs on everything from wrist watch over toaster to mainframe and Space Shuttle. That’s the whole idea of making code _portable_. During last FOSDEM, Greg Kroah Hartman claimed, that they even surpassed NetBSD in terms of portability. He said: “That’s right, NetBSD, you lost that battle looooong time ago.” He really cheered the audience with that.
Anyway. Nice to see that actually that what Torvalds predicted in his auto-biography more than 10 years ago is actually happening. Linux EVERYWHERE.
Drunk and happy now! Greetings from Oslo,
Adrian
Everywhere but the desktop.
Let’s not forget that Linus also called OS X a “piece of crap” in that same auto-biography.
Linux has been the perfect competition for MS and Apple: All talk and no show.
Linux is only great on embedded devices, servers or on devices without X.org and associated cruft.
Says you. It’s all a matter of opinion. I have been using linux for a decade and I wouldn’t want any other desktop OS.
Same here, I’ve been almost exclusively using Linux since 2002 and I started using it in 1998.
I have to admit that in regard of high-speed graphics, you are right, X.Org still has to catch up, especially to Windows. But besides that, everything else works pretty much perfectly on all my hardware, out-of-the-box
.
And if I need to serious gaming, I can just reboot into Windows.
Adrian
That bit about Linux being more portable than NetBSD may be true… but NetBSD is actually maintained on a crapload of platforms whereas Linux is not. Try and find an active distro that supports Sparc32 and you will see what I mean… NetBSD runs on the original BeBox for crying out loud.
Use NetBSD today… or toil away at LFS and use it in a month… you can see why I choose NetBSD for my SS5.
I just saying it isn’t exactly a fair statement to say Linux is more portable …of course it is all it’s just a kernel not an OS.
http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article…
It might be a good idea to download and back up the SDK with the ROM image in it before some pointy-haired type decides to remove the download to prevent just this type of thing…
–bornagainpenguin
Well, as Thom pointed out, they haven’t minded hackers playing around with their code. Heck, the code needed to get developer mode on the Palm Pre is the good old Konami code… and as far as I know that hole hasn’t been plugged.
DigitalAxis countered…
…YET. Never underestimate the asshattery involved once a company gets purchased (or is offered for sale) especially if in the confusion middle managers get involved and start erring on the side of caution. Consider this my own erring on the side of caution, making sure that if this comes to anything I have a copy of the rom to play with. If nothing happens then no big deal–if the download goes down or the rom is changed for some strange reason in way that breaks this or makes functionality more difficult, then at least I’ll have a back up that still works…
–bornagainpenguin
Good point. We don’t know exactly how paranoid HP’s lawyers are, yet.
DigitalAxis replied…
Exactly! And since there is a bunch of changes going on right now, HP’s lawyers getting involved, etc etc inertia could work against getting any sensible response for quite some time as the aforementioned lawyers take their time to research all the ramifications… Who wants to wait that long if \ when the breakthroughs start coming and this becomes slightly more than just a toy?
–bornagainpenguin
Will it run on a… IPAD ??!??
<demonic laugh>
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !!!!
</demonic laugh>
😉
It’s nifty that it’s doable but beyond the “It’s there and I can” factor is there any practical reason for doing so?
If nothing else, it demonstrates the ease with which this OS can be ported. Just think- if some dude on the Internet is able to get this far using a generic image with zero modification, imagine what kind of hardware they already have this running on in Palm’s labs. Especially since they now have a bottomless money-bag courtesy of HP
When you see this, you start to understand why HP dropped the much hyped Slate like it was hot almost the day after buying Palm. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if webOS is already running nicely on prototype Slate devices. It really wouldn’t take much more than writing the drivers to get it 95% working. A little polish, app integration, and let the lawyers figure out that whole acquisition thing, and we could have slick HPalm Tablets by the end of the year.
And I’ll be the first in line to get one. I’m a Pre Plus owner and I have to tell you this OS is an absolute joy to use. Really its the most excited a computing platform has gotten me since the first time I booted BeOS!
Sorry if this is a stupid question but it’s Monday morning: how is this possible? I thought ARM Snapdragon has a different instruction set to Intel Pentium?
How can you run a ROM image from an ARM processor on an Intel Pentium without an emulator?
Ok it it’s Monday
On re-reading, I understand that they used the image from the virutal machine…