Bonum Certa Men Certa

Linux-based Operating Systems Replace Windows

Palm Pre with WebOS and Palm OS



Summary: HP gets WebOS and Google gets BumpTop (for 3-D desktop), which in turn help replace Windows that is simply too bloated and unimpressive

LAST WEEK we wrote about HP buying Palm, later to point out that HP products that run Windows are now dead ("Slate" as we knew it from public demos is called off).



Some say that "Slate" is only delayed (unlike Courier which is dead for sure), but it is likely that it will just come with Linux rather than Vista 7; it's not the form factor, it's the software. As Perlow put it some days ago:

HP's Slate was an Ugly Baby with Windows 7



[...]

The existing WebOS application base of 1500+ programs, while not huge, will run pretty much as-is with some simple re-packaging and screen optimization, because the apps are all written in the lingua franca of the Web, HTML and Javascript, and are completely CPU platform neutral.


Other reports tell us that WebOS might have something to do with Windows being abolished.

Techcrunch is reporting that Hewlett-Packard is killing off its Slate tablet before it comes to market.

The reasoning, according to a Techcrunch source, is that HP isn't happy with the performance of Window 7 as a tablet operating system. That means HP will be shopping around for a new operating system such as Google's Android OS or they could be fixing to convert Palm's webOS for tablets.


In other interesting news, Google acquires BumpTop probably to put it on top of Chrome OS or Android. Will Google port it to Linux/Android? Will it become Free software? We shall see.

Google is acquiring BumpTop, a startup that aimed to improve the interface of your computer desktop.

BumpTop launched its first product about a year ago. The idea, as founder and chief executive Anand Agarawala described it during a talk at the 2007 TED conference, was to do away with the “same old crap” found in the layout of both the Windows and Mac operating systems. By turning the desktop into a three-dimensional space, users can arrange things more naturally and creatively. They can pile things up, just like they can on a physical desk.


BumpTop is rather impressive and Google will probably bring it to GNU/Linux in one form or another. Given that Chrome OS and Android are mostly 'open' (not entirely), it would be reasonable to assume that BumpTop will augment the GNU/Linux experience as Looking Glass once did (even though it was proprietary).

Recent Techrights' Posts

European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Battistelli's "Baltic Crusader"
Gilles Requena, Battistelli's erstwhile "Baltic Crusader" and the loyal servant of his successor Campinos
 
Links 14/06/2026: Energy Cost and Reality Strikes at Heart of Slop Bubble, 75 Data Center Build-outs "Successfully Blocked"
Links for the day
Microsoft CEO Says XBox is Not a Sustainable Business
"Now, we have to turn this into a sustainable business," he said about XBox
MElon (MUSK, Elon) is a Trillionaire Like Penguins Are Mammals
Have media outlets told the truth?
Unlikely Heroes
One personal hero who is not alive (anymore) is Navalny
Bruce Schneier Was Probably Wrong About Slop
Right now politicians who openly speak in favour of slop are committing "political suicide"
SLAPP Censorship - Part 106 Out of 200: 100 Kilograms of Legal Papers
When one party's communications and filings weigh at about 3 KG of paper and another's... at about 100 KG of paper
Links 14/06/2026: More Google Layoffs, Wall Street Deems Companies That Lose Money "Worth" Trillions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2026: "The Universe is a Hologram", "Matrix Brain Download", and "Happy 0th Year"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 13, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, June 13, 2026
Links 13/06/2026: University of Nottingham Confirms Data/System Breach, Courts Fuming at Fraudulent Lawyers Who Fling LLM Slop at Them
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/06/2026: World Cups and 做人
Links for the day
Microsoft's XBox "Bloodbath" Seems to Have Already Begun (Informally), Studios Allegedly to Face Shutdowns, Layoff Notices Handed Out, 100% Layoffs in Some Cases, 10% in Others or on Average
So is a complete closure/shutdown imminent? (Compulsion Games in this case)
Discussing Morale at IBM and Conversations Regarding IBM Layoffs (Disguised as Other Things)
Trolling can be a form of censorship
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: All the President's Men
Gilles Requena,Patrice Pellegrino, and Sandro Mendonça
SUEPO Elections Coming Up, Union Leaders at Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) to be Determined Soon
The staff union of the European Patent Office (SUEPO) is having an election soon
SLAPP Censorship - Part 105 Out of 200: When Bad Legal Advice Results in Your Client, Dale Vince, Ordered to Pay £600k - or 801,930 United States Dollar (USD) - to the Person Frivolously Sued (Lord Bailey of Paddington)
"A judge has ruled that Dale Vince must pay punitive costs to Lord Bailey of Paddington, the Tory peer, over the 'unexplained abandonment' of his" SLAPP
How Long for Can American Taxpayers Justify Bailing Out Microsoft?
How many times need the American taxpayers give Microsoft money for vapourware that's neither necessary nor delivered?
IBM is Importing/Exporting Corporations' Regime of Censorship (Hiding the Wrongdoing) to Free Software Communities
Is IBM protecting criminals in the name of "manners"?
Links 13/06/2026: Microsoft’s XBox Crisis and "Apple Deepfakes"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/06/2026: Why Humans Are Mostly Right Handed and "Getting Things Done"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 12, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, June 12, 2026
SLAPP Censorship - Part 104 Out of 200: Exactly Two Years Ago Brett Wilson LLP Humiliated or Weaponised Our Solicitor's Judaism in an Effort to Censor and Gag Us
dated 12/06/24
Half a Year Since Slopwatch Died
To Google's credit, it did manage to delist a lot of slopfarms in recent months
Links 12/06/2026: Science, Windows TCO, and More
Links for the day
"AI" 46 Times in One 'Article' Because The Register MS Got Paid to Push it
Today is just another opportunity to remind people that the slop bubble and GPU bubble are based on inauthentic fake 'journalism'
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: FTP and Gopher, Cluster Outage Postmortem After Cleaning by Wife
Links for the day
Sonny Piers Finally Spills the Beans on GNOME Cover-up, Points Finger at Robert McQueen, Misusing "Defamation" to Silence Critics of Wrongdoing
Robert McQueen, who is extremely connected to Garrett (they share digital nests)
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Transcending Partisan Rivalry in the National Interest
Up until now, Campinos has generally been regarded as a Portuguese "asset" on the international stage
Gratitude to Whistleblowers or Sources of Techrights
Whistleblowers are what makes journalism work
Techrights Was Months Ahead of "XBox" News (Mass Layoffs)
Next: end of XBox as a console
More Commentary on June 2026 IBM Layoffs and Why They Happen
It sounds a lot like what happened to the EPO
Links 12/06/2026: "NearlyFreeSpeech" No More, Openwashing by Google (DiffusionGemma)
Links for the day
Today There's a Massive EPO Strike (Like Every Friday), Workers Explain Further Cuts Despite the EPO Making More Income by Granting Illegal Patents (or Invalid Patents Illegally)
"Recent exchange with the Administration on the implications of the SAP on the Education and Childcare Allowance"
The Cyber Show: Remember That Code is Art
The article is very long, very profound, and speaks of "the next installation"
Communicating With Freedom - Part IV - Quibble Now in quibble.chat, Open for Contributions Via Codeberg
Today we continue the series about Quibble
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Importance of Having "Pals from the Palacete"
for his reappointment bid to succeed, Campinos will need to be able to rely on the support of both the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the President of the European Council, António Costa
Cyber Show on How Updates or Upgrades Break Workflows, Even in Free Software
"We did a big upgrade on the AV production pipeline"
Discussions About IBM Layoffs in June, Including by RTO and PIPs
mass layoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: Decks and Work Essay
Links for the day
"Rolling Strikes" Continue at the European Patent Office, the Administrative Council Needs to Take Action Against Crooked Office Management
This coming weekend we'll talk about some of the other issues and concerns expressed by the union
Only Days After Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's Azure There Are Headlines About Much-Expected XBox Layoffs
XBox as a console is basically dead or "fast-dying"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 11, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 11, 2026