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WebOS is a terrible, flawed, slow as molasses OS. WebOS will never gain traction because apps on it will always be much slower than native compiled apps on iOS

WebOS is a terrible, flawed, slow as molasses OS. WebOS will never gain traction because apps on it will always be much slower than native compiled apps on iOS or even JITed apps on Android. It's that simple. No amount of buzzword compliance is going to change that. Just look at this benchmark: http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4658/40733.png http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph4658/40733.png The device/OS which relies on JavaScript performance for everything is the slowest when it comes to JavaScript performance. :) Even if they could 2-2.5x performance, it'd still be noticeably slower than iOS or Android. Anyone who thinks people are buying these TouchPads because they think they're a viable product is delusional at best. People are buying them because they're $99, and $99 doesn't buy you much these days.

revorad 15y ago
That's why I want one to test my web apps, keeping in line with yesterday's discussion - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2911935 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2911935. But I haven't seen any fire sales here in the UK. The cheapest I've found is for ~£160 on ebay from people who bought the $99 ones in the US.
- danlove 15y ago
  Dixons/PC World/Curry's had one yesterday online, and in store today. Reduced to £89 I believe.
  - revorad 15y ago
    I checked online yesterday but didn't see any reduced prices. I called Curry's just now and they had a recorded message saying they've sold out. I can't believe I missed it!
    - robin_reala 15y ago
      I think I got one on Dabs earlier before they sold out (got a confirmation email but whether they had any stock is another matter). Your best bet is play.com, who haven’t lowered their prices yet but probably will.
- julestm 15y ago
  http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/873167-hp-touchpad-prices-slashed-after-tablet-discontinued http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/873167-hp-touchpad-prices-slashe... £89 in Dixons? Haven't been able to confirm myself.
- iaskwhy 15y ago
  Check these sites: http://www.tz10.co.uk/touchpad/ http://www.tz10.co.uk/touchpad/ I think I got one from Comet but it's hard to know even if I paid for it, demand has been huge and sites are being down seconds after they lower the price. Also, people are buying them at the normal price because they know they can return them if they don't get a refund. And since stores don't want to deal with it, everyone is very confident stores will just refund it.
AndrewDucker 15y ago
When they put WebOS on the iPad it ran twice as fast: http://news.techeye.net/hardware/webos-did-better-on-an-ipad http://news.techeye.net/hardware/webos-did-better-on-an-ipad The problem with the ToughPad was that the hardware was appallingly slow.
- yardie 15y ago
  They didn't put WebOS on an iPad and no one has been able to verify this claim, ever. Now the apps, mostly, are javascript and css. Most apps you could run through the browser on an iPad and that is how WebOS development is done. In fact you could start the WebOS emulator, designate a port to connect over and open your favorite browser to the IP and port of the emulator. This is how actual development is done as defined in their SDK. Most of the people posting this ridiculous link don't know what they are talking about. Anyone can run a webos app in a browser. No one has been able to run webos outside of webOS devices.
  - randomdata 15y ago
    The original article I read reported that the webOS userland was loaded in MobileSafari and it ran at more than twice the speed. Screenshots of it in action were also given. Granted, that is easy to fake. I'm not familiar enough with webOS to know how much of the userland is written in HTML/JS/CSS, but it doesn't seem completely inconceivable. Even if it was just benchmarking of apps running standalone at more than twice the speed, that alone is pretty significant.
    - yardie 15y ago
      WebOS gui is written in javascript with hooks into the hardware. In fact its so easy to modify you can download the ipks from preware and see that they are shellscripts of patchdiffs to different parts of the system. Want to turn on the flashlight from the menubar? There is a JS function call in the system library for that. My first exposure to it was disabling the CDMA radio, from javascript, and enabling wifi. I was using a Sprint Pre for development in a country where only GSM exists. To get past the initial setup screen I configured the system to use wifi instead of GPRS. The great thing about WebOS was it was open in the literal sense (unfortunately, not the license) you could modify every aspect of the system using javascript and CSS. There is nothing else like it in the world. Not Android, not WP7 and definitely not iOS
rbanffy 15y ago
> WebOS is a terrible, flawed, slow as molasses OS. Maybe version 3 is. My Pre 2 is nice and responsive. > WebOS will never gain traction because apps on it will always be much slower than native compiled apps on iOS or even JITed apps on Android. JavaScript can be JITed. And you can write native code for it just fine. It's just not that much fun.

revorad 15y ago

That's why I want one to test my web apps, keeping in line with yesterday's discussion - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2911935 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2911935. But I haven't seen any fire sales here in the UK. The cheapest I've found is for ~£160 on ebay from people who bought the $99 ones in the US.

danlove 15y ago
Dixons/PC World/Curry's had one yesterday online, and in store today. Reduced to £89 I believe.
- revorad 15y ago
  I checked online yesterday but didn't see any reduced prices. I called Curry's just now and they had a recorded message saying they've sold out. I can't believe I missed it!
  - robin_reala 15y ago
    I think I got one on Dabs earlier before they sold out (got a confirmation email but whether they had any stock is another matter). Your best bet is play.com, who haven’t lowered their prices yet but probably will.
julestm 15y ago
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/873167-hp-touchpad-prices-slashed-after-tablet-discontinued http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/873167-hp-touchpad-prices-slashe... £89 in Dixons? Haven't been able to confirm myself.
iaskwhy 15y ago
Check these sites: http://www.tz10.co.uk/touchpad/ http://www.tz10.co.uk/touchpad/ I think I got one from Comet but it's hard to know even if I paid for it, demand has been huge and sites are being down seconds after they lower the price. Also, people are buying them at the normal price because they know they can return them if they don't get a refund. And since stores don't want to deal with it, everyone is very confident stores will just refund it.

AndrewDucker 15y ago

When they put WebOS on the iPad it ran twice as fast: http://news.techeye.net/hardware/webos-did-better-on-an-ipad http://news.techeye.net/hardware/webos-did-better-on-an-ipad The problem with the ToughPad was that the hardware was appallingly slow.

yardie 15y ago
They didn't put WebOS on an iPad and no one has been able to verify this claim, ever. Now the apps, mostly, are javascript and css. Most apps you could run through the browser on an iPad and that is how WebOS development is done. In fact you could start the WebOS emulator, designate a port to connect over and open your favorite browser to the IP and port of the emulator. This is how actual development is done as defined in their SDK. Most of the people posting this ridiculous link don't know what they are talking about. Anyone can run a webos app in a browser. No one has been able to run webos outside of webOS devices.
- randomdata 15y ago
  The original article I read reported that the webOS userland was loaded in MobileSafari and it ran at more than twice the speed. Screenshots of it in action were also given. Granted, that is easy to fake. I'm not familiar enough with webOS to know how much of the userland is written in HTML/JS/CSS, but it doesn't seem completely inconceivable. Even if it was just benchmarking of apps running standalone at more than twice the speed, that alone is pretty significant.
  - yardie 15y ago
    WebOS gui is written in javascript with hooks into the hardware. In fact its so easy to modify you can download the ipks from preware and see that they are shellscripts of patchdiffs to different parts of the system. Want to turn on the flashlight from the menubar? There is a JS function call in the system library for that. My first exposure to it was disabling the CDMA radio, from javascript, and enabling wifi. I was using a Sprint Pre for development in a country where only GSM exists. To get past the initial setup screen I configured the system to use wifi instead of GPRS. The great thing about WebOS was it was open in the literal sense (unfortunately, not the license) you could modify every aspect of the system using javascript and CSS. There is nothing else like it in the world. Not Android, not WP7 and definitely not iOS

rbanffy 15y ago

> WebOS is a terrible, flawed, slow as molasses OS. Maybe version 3 is. My Pre 2 is nice and responsive. > WebOS will never gain traction because apps on it will always be much slower than native compiled apps on iOS or even JITed apps on Android. JavaScript can be JITed. And you can write native code for it just fine. It's just not that much fun.