5 ms·

Video: Open WebOS on Ubuntu 12.04

72 points by mikecane 14y ago

sp332 14y ago
Wow, I expected it to look more like a choppy, buggy emulator but that's really smooth!
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Well, it is largely HTML5, so it may not be emulated.
- thedeuce 14y ago
  and its only a few clocks and calculators...i'm pretty sure you can get anything to look smooth doing that
rjzzleep 14y ago
with all it's libraries open webos would actually make a pretty nice desktop development toolkit. (yeah i know, it's html5 and desktop html5 kinda sux), but that thing definitely amounts to some of the best looking linux apps around.
- agumonkey 14y ago
  Same thought. The core of webos looks small, and capable enough to make most of day to day apps. It would reduce friction and unnecessary toolkit complexity.
- rsanchez1 14y ago
  Would definitely work great if you're using a tablet running Ubuntu.
mortenjorck 14y ago
It's looking great, but there's one detail I had feared might be the case, which seems to have happened: Font Bureau's lovely, custom type family Prelude appears to have met the licensing axe. (More on Prelude here: http://webos.org/2009/07/05/webos-font-is-called-prelude-developed-by-font-bureau/ http://webos.org/2009/07/05/webos-font-is-called-prelude-dev... ) It's a shame, because Prelude was as much a part of the WebOS identity as Helvetica Neue is to iOS or Roboto is to Android 4+. What might be best at this point, if it's true that Prelude simply cannot be legally included in the OSS distribution, is that a new, open-source family be selected. I'd suggest Lato, a friendly, 10-weight family with a similar humanized geometricism to Prelude's Futura lineage. (http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Lato http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Lato)
- mikecane 14y ago
  Would users be able to replace the typeface on their own? Thinking back to 1980s Mac days when people could replace the System Font...
  - sp332 14y ago
    I doubt the font police will knock down your door, but it is legally dubious. https://developer.palm.com/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=92&t=16660 https://developer.palm.com/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=92&#... If you don't have a WebOS device, you can find the URLs in this document http://thyb.net/cosmos/coconutfont.css http://thyb.net/cosmos/coconutfont.css And I believe these are the instructions for changing the font in the Luna launcher (although it might be easier when you're running it on a PC) http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-development/197905-how-change-font-color-size-app-launcher.html http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-development/197905-how-c...
- joshuafcole 14y ago
  I do not speak officially from within H/Palm, but during my time as an intern there this summer, we rebuilt the Enyo website and used Lato as our typeface. This is subject to change, but I feel its a great fit if we cannot move forward with Prelude. http://enyojs.com/ http://enyojs.com/ - Check out index.css, line 671. I apologize for the lengthy CSS, we used SASS (which I strongly recommend) and the original plan was to minify the CSS and keep the sass files available publicly, but it seems this has changed since my internship ended.
brandoncapecci 14y ago
They should change the slide to unlock feature before Apple sees this :)
- amitdugar 14y ago
  Not now .... webOS is not yet a threat to Apple or iOS :)
egfx 14y ago
Gotta love enyo
wazoox 14y ago
Heck, I'm missing my Pré. WebOS really buries Android UI-wise (and it buries iOS when it comes to multitasking).
- rbanffy 14y ago
  Can't agree more with you. I still have my Pre and, 3rd party application support excepted, it's a wonderful phone. Too bad phones these days are mostly pocket computers that make phone calls.
  - wazoox 14y ago
    I still have my Pré+ too, but it's getting old (more than 2 years), the screen is badly scratched, a piece of glass is missing near the USB port and a crack is slowly enlarging; and recently the audio jack went awry, making the phone believing I was using headphones when none were plugged in, which is hardly practical when you try replying an incoming call :)
- Yhippa 14y ago
  Couldn't agree more. I booted up my launch-day Pre also and while the hardware wasn't performant by any means for the OS they did so many things right. I also found I actually really miss the physical vertical slide-out keyboard.
zizou 14y ago
is there a way to install/run it on mac?
ibisum 14y ago
I'd love to be running this on an Open Pandora console right now.
rsanchez1 14y ago
The webOS way of app management just makes the most sense to me, it's miles ahead of anything Google and Apple can cook up. There's no ambiguity of which apps are open, no need for a task manager. It's all there for you to see. It's especially great when you can get card management as responsive as shown in the video.

72 points by mikecane 14y ago

sp332 14y ago

Wow, I expected it to look more like a choppy, buggy emulator but that's really smooth!

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Well, it is largely HTML5, so it may not be emulated.
thedeuce 14y ago
and its only a few clocks and calculators...i'm pretty sure you can get anything to look smooth doing that

rjzzleep 14y ago

with all it's libraries open webos would actually make a pretty nice desktop development toolkit. (yeah i know, it's html5 and desktop html5 kinda sux), but that thing definitely amounts to some of the best looking linux apps around.

agumonkey 14y ago
Same thought. The core of webos looks small, and capable enough to make most of day to day apps. It would reduce friction and unnecessary toolkit complexity.
rsanchez1 14y ago
Would definitely work great if you're using a tablet running Ubuntu.

mortenjorck 14y ago

It's looking great, but there's one detail I had feared might be the case, which seems to have happened: Font Bureau's lovely, custom type family Prelude appears to have met the licensing axe. (More on Prelude here: http://webos.org/2009/07/05/webos-font-is-called-prelude-developed-by-font-bureau/ http://webos.org/2009/07/05/webos-font-is-called-prelude-dev... ) It's a shame, because Prelude was as much a part of the WebOS identity as Helvetica Neue is to iOS or Roboto is to Android 4+. What might be best at this point, if it's true that Prelude simply cannot be legally included in the OSS distribution, is that a new, open-source family be selected. I'd suggest Lato, a friendly, 10-weight family with a similar humanized geometricism to Prelude's Futura lineage. (http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Lato http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Lato)

mikecane 14y ago
Would users be able to replace the typeface on their own? Thinking back to 1980s Mac days when people could replace the System Font...
- sp332 14y ago
  I doubt the font police will knock down your door, but it is legally dubious. https://developer.palm.com/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=92&t=16660 https://developer.palm.com/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=92&#... If you don't have a WebOS device, you can find the URLs in this document http://thyb.net/cosmos/coconutfont.css http://thyb.net/cosmos/coconutfont.css And I believe these are the instructions for changing the font in the Luna launcher (although it might be easier when you're running it on a PC) http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-development/197905-how-change-font-color-size-app-launcher.html http://forums.webosnation.com/webos-development/197905-how-c...
joshuafcole 14y ago
I do not speak officially from within H/Palm, but during my time as an intern there this summer, we rebuilt the Enyo website and used Lato as our typeface. This is subject to change, but I feel its a great fit if we cannot move forward with Prelude. http://enyojs.com/ http://enyojs.com/ - Check out index.css, line 671. I apologize for the lengthy CSS, we used SASS (which I strongly recommend) and the original plan was to minify the CSS and keep the sass files available publicly, but it seems this has changed since my internship ended.

brandoncapecci 14y ago

They should change the slide to unlock feature before Apple sees this :)

amitdugar 14y ago
Not now .... webOS is not yet a threat to Apple or iOS :)

egfx 14y ago

Gotta love enyo

wazoox 14y ago

Heck, I'm missing my Pré. WebOS really buries Android UI-wise (and it buries iOS when it comes to multitasking).

rbanffy 14y ago
Can't agree more with you. I still have my Pre and, 3rd party application support excepted, it's a wonderful phone. Too bad phones these days are mostly pocket computers that make phone calls.
- wazoox 14y ago
  I still have my Pré+ too, but it's getting old (more than 2 years), the screen is badly scratched, a piece of glass is missing near the USB port and a crack is slowly enlarging; and recently the audio jack went awry, making the phone believing I was using headphones when none were plugged in, which is hardly practical when you try replying an incoming call :)
Yhippa 14y ago
Couldn't agree more. I booted up my launch-day Pre also and while the hardware wasn't performant by any means for the OS they did so many things right. I also found I actually really miss the physical vertical slide-out keyboard.

zizou 14y ago

is there a way to install/run it on mac?

ibisum 14y ago

I'd love to be running this on an Open Pandora console right now.

rsanchez1 14y ago

The webOS way of app management just makes the most sense to me, it's miles ahead of anything Google and Apple can cook up. There's no ambiguity of which apps are open, no need for a task manager. It's all there for you to see. It's especially great when you can get card management as responsive as shown in the video.