Zhephree

webOS is a great operating system and I enjoy showing off what it can do. As long as it’s around, I’m sticking with it.

I said those words in this Developer Success Story on the webOS Developer site in October 2010. I said those words because I meant them in 2010 and I mean them today. webOS is a great OS and I love developing for it and I will continue to do so as long as webOS isn’t dead. What do I consider dead? When HP comes out and says they’re disbanding the webOS GBU. webOS devices may not be made by HP anymore, and who knows if they’ll be made by anyone else in the future, but I’ll still be there if webOS is.

webosinternals tweeted these things earlier tonight:

Note to current webOS device users: every webOS device can be easily patched to no longer need HP profile servers if it comes to that.

@webosinternals

Note to current webOS devs: regardless of the HP app catalog future, you can still get your apps to users and they can still install them.

@webosinternals

This is very true. webosInternals has done a lot to make sure that this is possible. It is because of this, even if HP were to pull down the App Catalog before I finish incredible!, there will always be a means to get it on your TouchPad. If the App Catalog is shut down, I’d assume all rules of selling apps outside of the Catalog would be voided, and if so, I will gladly sell ipk’s.

So, yes, I am absolutely going to finish the TouchPad version of incredible! and the beta should go to testers by this weekend.

What of the Mojo/Phone version? You know, I have no idea. After the Enyo version’s entry into the App Catalog (which will be fast-tracked now), I’ll probably take a break from webOS development. Since there won’t be any new webOS devices anytime soon (if ever), there’s a very good possibility Mojo is pointless for me to support. If I ever finish the Mojo app, it’ll be because I got super drunk and bored one night.

I know, that sucks huge amounts, but it’s unfortunately my only option at this point. Even if webOS lives on, it’ll only live on in Enyo varieties and supporting a dead framework for a dead/dying OS really makes no sense.

What does this mean for apps other than incredible!? I’ll break it down:

growlr
My webOS Untappd client is open source and the code is available on GitHub. Feel free to do whatever with it, just give credit where it’s due. I doubt I’ll ever update this app. Vorlauf on the TouchPad is a great app and it’s also open source. 

foursquare
Ah, my bread and butter. The reason I got into webOS and mobile development. The Monolith of apps. Often heralded as the best foursquare client (You guys are nuts), it’s the reason I use foursquare so much, the reason I’m an app developer. Foursquare is an amazing platform that is growing faster than I can keep up with today. That’s the reason that it’s been open source since day 1. It’s a Mojo app, so, like growlr, it’s probably going to die. Man, I got chocked up typing that. I will continue to maintain it in terms of bug fixes (and you can too!), but new features, sadly, won’t come to be, at least right now. Foursquare is one app I will be waiting on word from the HP Developer Relations team on what I should do. If someone commits to releasing a new webOS device with a version of the OS that supports Enyo, I may port it over, but this is a loooong time down the road.

neato!
This one is at a stand-still. It works fine on the TouchPad as a Mojo app, and, given the circumstances, I don’t see Mojo support being pulled very soon, so, it’ll work for now. I have been planning on releasing a new version of neato! with a JavaScript service so other apps could easily utilize sending stuff, but now I’m not sure. Again, I’ll be waiting on how the ecosystem evolves before I make any decisions.

What about apps I had planned but haven’t started? One is awesome but it would’ve likely sold because it would be the only one on webOS, so, I’ll wait it out. The other app was going to have some help from Rhea (my fiancée) but, it is completely viable on any mobile platform, so it’s going to be shelved until I see what webOS is doing. There’s a strong probability you’ll see this one on some platform or another one day.

So, what about me? What about my phone, etc.? No clue. My Sprint contract is up on the 27th, but my Pre Plus is running mostly okay. I may just shove the Sprint comm board into my developer AT&T Pre 2 and use that until I make a decision. Rhea’s Verizon Pixi Plus is literally falling appart and she had been holding out to see if the Pre 3 landed on Verizon. Seeing as how that’s not bloody likely, she’ll probably be moving on from webOS, which sucks since she was always my initial beta tester.

If I move on from webOS one day, it’ll probably be to Android, even though I”m a Mac guy. As much as I hate Java, I’m less of a fan of iOS. But, you never know. iOS is a great platform for developers, in terms of downloads, but I don’t know. Rhea’s got an iPod Touch, so I wouldn’t necessarily need an iPhone.

Anyway, I’m still a webOS developer and I’m still a webOS user and that will not change until my phone breaks or the webOS GBU is broken up. Even if webOS were to be sold to another company, I’d probably not buy into it since one of the main reasons I stuck with webOS development is because of people like Dion Alamaer and Ben Galbraith, Chuq, Lisa Brewster, Steve Lemke, John Kneeland, Peter Helm, and dozens others who’ve dealt with me over the years. Developer Relations is what made webOS even more of a joy as a developer and if anyone else were to be in charge of its developers, I can’t say I’d want to develop for it anymore.