The Open webOS project have announced on their blog that their upcoming open source version of webOS will not be compatible with existing devices. This has come as a shock to the small but dedicated community who have supported webOS through difficult times and were looking forward to continued support.
Here is the reason given on their blog
For Open webOS we are aiming for support on future hardware platforms where SoC’s support Linux 3.3+ kernel and where open source replacements for proprietary components are integrated. Existing devices cannot be supported because of those many proprietary components, including graphics, networking and lack of drivers for a modern kernel
Whilst this may be a tough pill to follow for the webOS faithful, it should hopefully ensure the future of the platform which may one day have a share of the success a certain other open source OS has had recently.
I hate that. I was hoping for an OpenWebOS version to replace WebOS on the TouchPad. I was also thinking that my Samsung Galaxy S II would be an awesome replacement for my work Palm Pre.