HP's move to make webOS open source is close to being fully realised, with the company announcing the beta version of 'Open webOS' has now gone live.

The beta release – which comes eight months after the platform behind both Palm handsets and HP's own TouchPad was opened up to third parties – provides two build environments.

HP has delivered both a Linux desktop build for enhancing webOS, as well as an OpenEmbedded build - which includes an ARM emulator - for porting the operating system to new hardware.

Backstory

HP's original decision to open up webOS came several months after the company dropped full support for the OS and announced plans to discontinue all production of webOS devices.

The platform's original creator, Palm, had originaly been acquired by HP for $1.2 billion in April 2010 to fuel a drive on both the smartphone and tablet markets.

Regardless, little over a year later, then-CEO of HP Léo Apotheker allegedly 'killed' the webOS project just as the company's flagship webOS product – the HP TouchPad – was hitting the shelves.

Just what direction webOS will now take in its new open form is unclear. 

However, longterm support from the open source community will be key, with HP revealing both of the platform's build environments are to be freely available under the Apache 2.0 open source license, allowing devs to use, modify and distribute the software as they see fit.

[source: Open webOS Project]