webOS is the name of Palm’s new operating system that’s running on the Palm Pre. Although neither device nor the SDK is out yet, Palm is starting to prime the pump with its developer’s network blog and slow trickling of information. Last week, O’Reilly hosted a webcast that featured Palm’s Software CTO Mitch Allen that gave a basic overview of Palm Pre’s development model.

You can view the slides used for the webcast below:

We finally had a chance to look at the recorded webcast and you can find a high-level summary below:

  • Native applications for webOS are written using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript.
  • Palm provides a JavaScript framework it calls Mojo framework, which it has extended to provide on-device access (i.e. camera, location, accelerometer, contacts, etc.) and cloud services access.
  • webOS does not expose its underlying Linux OS for application developers. App developers must program against the Mojo framework.
  • Palm incorporates a rich card metaphor in its user experience and development model. It talks about stages and scenes metaphorically, but it’s nothing more than windows and views.
  • Palm’s programming model supports multi-tasking and background tasks.
  • Palm admitted that the current programming model is not very suitable for games.
  • webOS SDK will support development on multiple operating systems: Linux, MacOS and Windows.
  • Developers will be able to put their apps on an App Catalog, similar to Apple’s App Store.

Here are our thoughts:

  • We like Palm’s embrace with multi-tasking and background tasks (unlike Apple). webOS has a Dashboard where background apps can show banner notifications in an unobtrusive way. For example, an incoming instant message can show up there. It’s great.
  • Web standards based programming model will let many folks get started easier and lower the barrier to entry. However, to build anything complex and substantial is probably more difficult given the weakly typed nature of JavaScript.
  • Not having a story for game development is a big shame. If you look at the top apps sold on the iPhone App Store, most of them are games.

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