If I recall correctly when the webOS games were ported out of the box to the n900, it was discussed that this was because the hardware is virtually the same as the n900, as such would it be possible to install webOS on the n900?

...in the same way as we been playing around with android/ubuntu/etc

Or is this just not possible due to some legal scenario?

Well.. aslong as its closed source, i dont think it'll be possible :P

No source, no SO.

I see... but isn't webOS just another flavour of linux?
Surely If the hardware is same most drivers should just work.

I just looked up a thread which looks like there could also be some license restrictions to run webOS on other hardware:
http://forums.precentral.net/general...facturers.html

The thing i like about n900 is the 32GB of internal storage + external storage, best physical keyboard ever and decent screen size, now just image being able to run webOS instead of maemo.

Maybe we should request HP if they could release webOS for the n900

It would open up a whole new world of decent applications.

generally speaking you could flash it on your n900. Biggest problem of closed source apps are drivers.
Drivers are like the translators of your phone. The OS talks to the drivers the drivers translate it and tell the hardware what to do. So installing a closed source thingy on your phone is just like...

You are an english guy. You bring a spanish translator with you and you want that translator to talk with a chinese guy and you can't change the translator you bring.

So...
Solutions are:
Teach the translator how to speak chinese == create/modify the drivers
Get another translator == Change the drivers(Not possible on closed source)
kick the chinese guy out of the way and replace it with a spanish one == get a webOS device

Oh yes...
They are both human == same linux flavors

Interesting analogy

...Not sure if at his moment i buy your analogy completely, i need to think about it more, like wise English is not my first language, when i first started to learn English at times I said unrelated things that were sometimes funny and sometimes upset people, as i have learn over the years from my mistakes this is no longer the case (bug fixes)), I have to say I have seen a translator that gives the flexibility to switch sections of the context of what needs to be translated, believe it or not wikipedia is probably one of the most accurate translators that we currently have on the web, same goes to bad versus good software practises and open standards or frameworks which we have today that we did not have years ago, devices get rooted all the time, even iphone seems that people have found ways to jailbreak them, while I agree that there could be some critical problems which would stop webOS from runnig on the n900, specially if HP, is preventing the software from running on another non hp device, but as the physical hardware seems to be very much the same (I remember years ago when i first got windows vista 64 bit and all my windows xp drivers would not run, trying to get the drivers to run and disabling certain features so i would not see the typical blue screen of death, but that limitation was because there were no drivers, noit even unsigned drivers for the 64 bit OS, at times other hardware unrelated drivers would just work), as software is improved to run in multiple devices now a days and the technologies used are very much standard, on top of that the hardware chips inside the device being the same, while I dont have the skills or time to figure it out, I would be curious to see how far such a project could go...

I would also imagine that there are legal issues around redistribution of webOS.

And I always wonder how winmo devices such as HTC HD2 managed to run android despite the drivers (used in winmo) were closed source!

the HD2 was easy because the hardware is basically identical to the EVO 4G, which runs android

Watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbYX0-5fddM