Good PR, yes, but it may also be a good strategic move for HP, particularly if this is a sign of things to come. HP is fighting hard to remain relevant, and a vibrant competitor to iOS and Android would push them back into relevancy. Everything tech seems to be heading toward mobile, and if HP can establish a firm foothold there, they'll be a stronger company for it.

Now, I'm not saying this will happen, but at least it's possible now. webOS wasn't going to do anything for anyone sitting in a corner. Personally, I think a lot of its success depends on if/how they manage to set up a competitive webOS app store, facilitate at least one device that can run it, and letting webOS run as openly as possible on that device. Open source advocates would flock to buy and develop for a device running on a truly open OS with an open development model.

I'm also curious about a compatibility layer for Android. Dalvik has already been ported to maemo/meego, although it's closed-source. I'm relatively sure someone will now port Dalvik to webOS. I think a webOS with a vibrant, open-source community, able to run Android apps, could pose a significant challenge to portions of the Android market (to iOS to a lesser extent).

PR. They haven't got a clue about what do with webOS, so instead of announcing its shutdown, they 'donate' it to open source.

And this is worth the tens of millions, if not hundreds, that they would have received for selling it?

You can only sell if you can find a buyer.

WebOS isn't worth anything. Yet another platform with little adoption. Meebo has no adoption by hardware manufactures and it is free.

The Palm patent portfolio is worth a lot, but I doubt HP is interested in selling it.

Selling it to who, exactly?

Word on the street was Facebook (http://zd.net/psW2NP) and Amazon (http://bit.ly/uSFTVz) were interested.

Not interested enough, apparently!

both went with Android, and I think they did the right move..

"Many" companies were rumored to be interested in buying Palm's patents. I don't know why HP didn't sell the Palm patents. I'm curious to see what the webOS open source license will have to say about the use of Palm patents.

The patents are probably most useful for defense, especially in today's fairly ridiculous IP litigation climate.

Just a guess, but this lets HP achieve the two things they've wanted in trying to find a buyer: allow webOS to live on in new hardware made by other company, and still allow HP to use webOS in their new printers. Although this is just a rumor, I don't doubt they'll come out with webOS printers since they've kept announcing it ever since Mark Hurd was CEO when Palm was purchased. Not sure how webOS printer sales would translate to the bottom line for HP, but I'm curious to see and use such a printer (I currently use the Pre 2 as my mobile phone).