This week, HP released further details on its now open source webOS operating system, by announcing the release of Enyo, its JavaScript app framework, which will allow developers to distribute their Enyo-based webOS apps across other platforms.

 

Sam Greenblatt, the chief technology officer and head of technical strategy for the open webOS project, explained that Enyo is a “lightweight, cross-platform framework aimed at mobile devices and web browsers”.

 

He elaborated that the release includes Enyo 1.0, which allows current developers of Enyo apps for webOS devices to distribute their apps to other platforms, as well as the core of Enyo 2.0, which will be the foundation for Enyo going forward.

 

Version 2.0 expands Enyo’s “write once, run anywhere” capability to more platforms, from mobile devices to desktop web browsers. It works on many of the most popular web browsers, including Chrome, IE 9, Firefox, and Safari.

 

The move is the company’s next step towards re-establishing its operating system, since announcing that the OS would be given a new lease on life towards the end of last year. Greenblatt reiterated that the company was “proud of webOS and its potential to harness web standards to improve the next generation of applications, web services, and devices”.

 

In other words, the webOS dream is back from the dead, or at least since lingering in limbo, when it seemed fated to be relegated to the technological graveyard after the TouchPad was discontinued. We lamented its loss at the time, and pointed out that webOS showed real potential.

 

To our minds though, web OS and HP’s renewal of it is gradually shaping up to be the technological equivalent of those classic ‘underdog gets knocked down and returns to regain glory’ movies that were popularised by the likes of the Rocky series or more recently, Real Steel.  And, if life truly does imitate art, we know better than to underestimate the resolve of the underdog.