In one of her first public appearances as HP's CEO, Meg Whitman is on stage right now speaking to the company's channel partners in Las Vegas.

She wants them to know that she expects it to take years to reap the fruit of open sourcing WebOS, reports ChannelBuzz.ca in a live blog of her speech.

"It will take 2-5 years to fully play out, but I believe the industry really needs another operating system," she said.

Why? Even though Apple is on fire, she said, it's closed.

Android is open but fragmented. And Google can't be trusted, she seems to think. Whitman suggested that Android may wind up closed one day thanks to Google's Motorola purchase.

An interesting idea, but also an unlikely one.

So, if the world can just wait a few more years, webOS will be ready to do some damage.

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