HP Releases Enyo 2.0 As Open Source, Provides Roadmap for webOS

HP today issued two updates on their new mobile open source initiatives.

The company made good on its commitment to open-source Enyo, its JavaScript framework that was announced alongside webOS 3.0 last year. In an effort to make Enyo more palatable for widespread use, Enyo 2.0 was released today, along with the source code for the previous Enyo 1.0.

Enyo, in addition to being updated to version 2.0, also got its own web site, enyojs.com. In addition, Enyo finally received a logo, pictured right.

What differentiates Enyo 2.0 from Enyo 1.0, is that it is now completely independent from webOS. It now embraces all modern HTML5 browsers, across mobile and desktop. This does come at a price, Enyo 2.0 has abandoned the webOS user interface elements that made Enyo attractive to developers who were looking for a robust user interface for their apps.

HP touted at the release that this is a known issue, but to offer Enyo quickly the company decided to release Enyo 2.0 without a UI library. A new UI library will be available for Enyo in the future from HP, which will likely facilitate development of apps across webOS and other platforms.

Future development for Enyo will also include drop-in plug-in support for Flash and Silverlight, allowing for quick embedding of YouTube, Hulu Plus, and other multimedia services.

For current webOS developers, HP pointed developers to continue using Enyo 1.0 in the mean time to embrace its UI library.

As to the roadmap for webOS, HP commented a bit more on its release schedule, providing more details, albeit less clarity. Read more for the details.

In a separate posting on the HP webOS Developer Blog, Sam Greenblatt provided some additional details on the webOS release schedule. Greenblatt serves as both CTO and head of technical strategy for the webOS project.

No discreet timeframes were given for the release of webOS source code, but Greenblatt did provide some notes of renovations to webOS that are ongoing. The company is switching to a Linux kernel that is “based on the Linux Foundation’s standard kernel”. Additionally, the company is replacing its Mojo database systems (mostly SQL and SQLite), to LevelDB, a database technology built and open-sourced by Google.

The company has provided a roadmap with the full timetable for webOS. “Open webOS 1.0” will be released in phases, with a full release by September of this year:

January:
Enyo 2.0 and Enyo source code
Apache License, Version 2.0

February:
Intended project governance model
QT WebKit extensions
JavaScript core
UI Enyo widgets

March:
Linux standard kernel
Graphics extensions EGL
LevelDB
USB extensions

April:
Ares 2.0
Enyo 2.1
Node services

July:
System manager (“Luna”)
System manager bus
Core applications
Enyo 2.2

August:
Build release model
Open webOS Beta

September:
Open webOS 1.0

Article was revised with timeframe provided by HP in a subsequent press release.