HP CEO Meg Whitman is announcing that HP has officially open sourced WebOS.

HP will contribute all the WebOS code base, Enyo framework, and continued investment into the WebOS technology platform. HP still has to make a decision on which approach to take.  The Sun Microsystem approach (top down – corporate focused) or that of Cloudera Yahoo (bottom up – community focused).  Successful paths today mirror more to what Cloudera is doing with the Apache Software Foundation and Hadoop.

I have been vocal in the past both on SiliconANGLE and Twitter that WebOS is a great mobile operating system.

Here is my post that I did about HP earlier this year, HP has executed both my recommendations now. Smart move HP.

WebOS Is Back – Android Should Be Worried – Developers Love WebOS

Apple should not be worried since they are dominating the mobile landscape. However,  Android should be worried because they have had the most active rise to the top of the charts both in market share, and more importantly developer traction. That said, WebOs has the biggest opportunity with developers and with open code out there I expect a quick ecosystem to develop.

It will be interesting to see if the venture community will rally around the WebOS effort.

Fast Changes At HP
This represents the final in series of moves to erase the Leo Apotheker debacle.  The PC business is staying, Autonomy is integrated and now the WebOS matter is settled.

Now HP can go about righting the ship. I’ve been saying for a while that other parts of the organization like HP’s ESSN group under Dave Donatelli’s direction are doing well. In particular, HP’s acquisition of 3PAR has been a home run.

I’m expecting a big “sigh” from the entire company from top to bottom when Whitman makes the announcement.

Here is the official announcement

HP to Contribute webOS to Open Source

HP to enable creativity of the community to accelerate the next-generation web-centric platform

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 9, 2011

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HP today announced it will contribute the webOS software to the open source community.

HP plans to continue to be active in the development and support of webOS. By combining the innovative webOS platform with the development power of the open source community, there is the opportunity to significantly improve applications and web services for the next generation of devices.

webOS offers a number of benefits to the entire ecosystem of web applications. For developers, applications can be easily built using standard web technologies. In addition, its single integrated stack offers multiplatform portability. For device manufacturers, it provides a single web-centric platform to run across multiple devices. As a result, the end user benefits from a fast, immersive user experience.

“webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable,” said Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer. “By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices.”

HP will make the underlying code of webOS available under an open source license. Developers, partners, HP engineers and other hardware manufacturers can deliver ongoing enhancements and new versions into the marketplace.

HP will engage the open source community to help define the charter of the open source project under a set of operating principles:

• The goal of the project is to accelerate the open development of the webOS platform
• HP will be an active participant and investor in the project
• Good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation
• Software will be provided as a pure open source project

HP also will contribute ENYO, the application framework for webOS, to the community in the near future along with a plan for the remaining components of the user space.

Beginning today, developers and customers are invited to provide input and suggestions at http://developer.palm.com/blog/.