• Tweet

HP has already committed to turning the webOS operating system that runs on smartphones and tablets into open source software. But initially the goal was for future versions of webOS to be community-focused software.

Now HP has announced plans to release additional parts of webOS 3.0.5 as open source software, which should allow independent developers to further tweak the software that’s already available for the HP TouchPad tablet.

HP expects to have the source code ready to go by June and is rebranding the open source components of webOS 3.0.5 as webOS Community Edition.

WebOS Nation explains the reason HP is releasing components rather than all the source code is that webOS includes proprietary software from other companies which HP has no rights to publish.

But even without the source code, hackers have been able to develop custom kernels, overclock and make other changes to TouchPads and other devices running webOS. It should be interesting to see what happens when even more of the underlying code is made accessible.