Despite reports that WebOS is on its deathbed, Hewlett-Packard has 17 WebOS positions open. One notable aspect of the job descriptions Nine include the word "senior" or "lead" and one, “director, system software engineering,” describes as an experienced leader for the entire WebOS team. Fifteen of the jobs are in Sunnyvale, Calif., with the other two – senior visual designer and senior interaction designer – in San Francisco. Said phonenews.com, which has been keeping an eye on HP: "The jobs almost read as a laundry list of people you would want to hire for a Linux-based startup if you just got funding." In December, HP said it would take webOS open source, continuing to be active in development and support. But it laid off 275 webOS employees in February. Google last month hired away a half-dozen or so members of the Enyo HTML 5 development project, include its leader Matt McNulty, and the project's fate wasn't clear in last month's announcement of massive layoffs at the company. The Verge  suggests that HP has stuck with WebOS only for tax purposes, and that might change after July 1, the second anniversary of the Palm acquisition. However, HP continues to maintain that its WebOS plans remain on track. Related Links