Open source doesn’t repeal laws of economics

“I take HP at their word that they will work with the open
source community to set up appropriate licensing and governance.
Unlike other firm-sponsored communities, letting go is not likely
to be a problem.

However, open source only works when you have enough
contributors. WebOS is not desktop Linux. Before a project
launches, the best proxies are developer interest and user demand
(scratching your own itch), and it’s no secret that webOS —
although technically sophisticated — was already an also-ran
when HP bought it in spring 2010.

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