HP releasing some webOS 3.0.5 components as ‘Community Edition’

HP is open sourcing some components for webOS 3.0.5 under the name “Community Edition,” says webOS CTO Sam Greenblatt. This isn’t directly related to Open webOS — the name of the company’s larger, all-encompassing open source project. Instead, the Community Edition is aimed at keeping webOS developers engaged in the platform by giving them more open access to the code that powers “legacy” devices — which pretty much encompasses every device that runs webOS to date, from the Pre to the TouchPad.

HP hopes that the release will help the community “better understand the platform and create a constructive environment for moving forward as Open webOS itself is released.” Of course, it’s great that HP is making the code available, but since few details have been announced and it falls outside the Open webOS project, it’s hard to know what to make of the release. HP says that all the pieces of the Community Edition should be out by June of this year.