webOS
Shares rank 26 of 87 operating systems by recommenders
Praised as ahead of its time and pleasant to use; critics say HP mismanaged it and security is weak.
Praised as ahead of its time and pleasant to use; critics say HP mismanaged it and security is weak.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 20
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 20 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Users loved it, fans miss it
“the screenshots I've seen of webOS makes me long for a revival”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “The Birth and Death of JavaScript (2014)” “people were pretty happy with webos/hp touchpad”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Atlas Shrugged (2024)” “WebOS was pretty cool (Palm).”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP” - Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “iPhone Pocket”
- Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “QNX Self-Hosted Developer Desktop”
Ahead of its time
“I also feel webOS was a lost opportunity too - in some ways it was just too ambitious for the hardware of its time.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” “Palm WebOS, MeeGo, there were various efforts that were better than Android and even iOS in a lot of ways”
Comment from 13 Jul 2026 in “Nokia's 14 Years of Mobile-Phone Supremacy Ended in an Afternoon” “webOS and Firefox OS was at least 20 years ahead of its time.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “The Birth and Death of JavaScript (2014)” - Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “"I'm obviously taking a risk here by advertising emoji directly."”
- Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Every Frame Perfect”
Pleasant, gets tasks done quickly
“it was about getting your digital must haves done and out of the way with just a couple key presses”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP” “it was supported by default and was amazing”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot” “webOS is pretty decent to use”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps” Homebrew and rooting possible
“it had Preware homebrew that didn't require exploits to run, it was supported by default and was amazing”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “VS Code deactivates IntelliCode in favor of the paid Copilot” “WebOS itself is actually pretty neat once you get root on the device.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Product line killed, mismanaged by HP
“My impression just from that training is that WebOs was extremely mismanaged.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Bose is open-sourcing its old smart speakers instead of bricking them” “They killed the product line almost immediately after release.”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Bose is open-sourcing its old smart speakers instead of bricking them” “they killed that entire product line without warning”
Comment from 8 Jan 2026 in “Bose is open-sourcing its old smart speakers instead of bricking them” - Comment from 12 Oct 2026 in “Will Linux phones become a viable alternative to the Android/iOS duopoly?”
Poor security, remotely exploitable
“But vulnerabilities that can be remotely exploited without user interaction (CVSS grade 9-10)?”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea” “The security posture of webOS is absolutely terrible”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea” Little custom app development
“It'll be difficult. It's webos of which there's very little custom development.”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]” “WebOS needed WASM and a lot more to be successful”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” Software experience feels poor
“there software leaves much to desire”
Comment from 23 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: Making a smart TV dumb and then smart” “Garbage computer experience.”
Comment from 13 Oct 2026 in “New Apple TV 4K”
Other operating systems people recommend
The four most recommended other operating systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 87 operating systems, rankedWhat people said
35 of the 39 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“there software leaves much to desire”
“Garbage computer experience.”
“WebOS was a 3rd option until HP sold it off.”
“it was about getting your digital must haves done and out of the way with just a couple key presses”
“WebOS was pretty cool (Palm).”
“WebOS itself is actually pretty neat once you get root on the device.”
“But vulnerabilities that can be remotely exploited without user interaction (CVSS grade 9-10)?”
“The security posture of webOS is absolutely terrible”
“It'll be difficult. It's webos of which there's very little custom development.”
“WebOS is much better than Android TV OS, with ads on the dashboard.”
“the other privacy invasive webos features”
“webOS is pretty decent to use”
“the OS can use PWAs as first-class apps”
“Palm WebOS, MeeGo, there were various efforts that were better than Android and even iOS in a lot of ways”
“webOS figured it out before iOS 7”
“the screenshots I've seen of webOS makes me long for a revival”
“webOS and Firefox OS was at least 20 years ahead of its time.”
“Only topped by the WebOS from Palm even before it”
“it does live on in LG TV's where its done quite well”
“WebOS needed WASM and a lot more to be successful”
“I also feel webOS was a lost opportunity too - in some ways it was just too ambitious for the hardware of its time.”
“webOS in general is very well documented”
“I thought I might like webOS, since it's technically a descendent of palmOS, but oh no. No no no.”
“years ahead of its time, doomed by circumstances”
“My impression just from that training is that WebOs was extremely mismanaged.”
“They killed the product line almost immediately after release.”
“they killed that entire product line without warning”
“I also loved Palm's WebOS”
“it had Preware homebrew that didn't require exploits to run, it was supported by default and was amazing”
“it was supported by default and was amazing”
“I still find it better than Android TV though.”
“Android, ChromeOS, WebOS have succeed among users, exactly because they are consumer OSes”
“junky Tizen/WebOS offerings from competitors”
“people were pretty happy with webos/hp touchpad”
“I'll always be missing WebOS”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.