HP announced, today, that its open sourcing WebOS, the operating system it acquired in its purchase of Palm. WebOS almost missed the tablet wars entirely, as former HP CEO Leo Apotheker attempted to kill the platform off before he himself was outsed. Score one for WebOS.

Thus far, all we know is that the operating system will be made open source. There's no word yet on what the license will be, or what body will govern the project. HP has listed proper governance as one of its requirements for the project, and has stated that it will be a primary contributor on the project.

Will this save the beleaguered OS? It might, if HP goes through with a rumored $99 tablet sale before the holidays. A lot of thrifty nerds bought HP Tablets when they were on fire sale earlier this year, and all the friends I have who got one almost immediately put Android on it instead of WebOS. Maybe that won't happen anymore if WebOS continues to develop.

Despite the lack of enthusiasm in the marketplace for anything but a bargain basement HP Tablet, this move will undoubtedly bring some momentum back to WebOS. It's a great operating system that has suffered from lack of development resources, even under HP's considerable shadow. Mostly, it's bee a niche OS beloved by a handful of dedicated developers and users. You can bet they'll be enthusiastic contributors to the project as well.