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Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

mozopenhard.mozillafactory.org

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Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#61

Post by pjmlp »

mundanevoice wrote: post #26
midgetjones wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your general point, but saying Google has better engineers is a bit of an assumption.

I don't think it's an assumption. Just look at the contributions of some of the senior staff engineers such as Brad Fitzpatrick for GO, Jeff dean to name a few on their projects. I don't see any parallel at Mozilla who could rival them. Well, for really ambitious software projects, you really need someone who has tonnes of experience and can write really good code. Not to say that Mozilla doesn't have any, but I thin…

On the other hand, do you have experience with Android tooling or its APIs?

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#62

Post by mikegioia »

StevePerkins wrote: post #50
mundanevoice wrote: post #19

Mozilla does so many things. I am afraid they loose their focus on one thing they could have done best. Make the best open source browser of the world. Look how they abandoned firefox OS phones. They shouldn't hope to become Google by doing almost everything Google does. Google is way bigger and has better Engineers.

Every year as December 31st looms, I sit down and parcel out my end-of-year donations to organizations I care about. Wikipedia, EFF, and of course some non-tech-related charities. Every year, I weigh whether I should throw some bucks to the Mozilla Foundation. I've been using their browsers, under one name or another, for over 20 years since the day I first discovered the web. It's been the most important piece of so…

This is a strange comment that starts in one place, and ends with your musings on the collapse of Mozilla.

First off, Mozilla didn't have FF "fall into their lap" from Netscape. Netscape spun it off and gave birth to Mozilla. They absolutely do not consider Firefox legacy software and you'll need to back that up somehow for me to believe it.

They may very well be a better company at $2M than they are at $300M, but the back half of your comment sounds bitter and angry at what appears to be Mozilla's recent announcement on Thunderbird.

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#63

Post by davb »

I opened this on my phone, and just seen some links (MozOpenHand Links). I had no idea there was supposed to be more content here. The actual content is hidden for mobile UAs (I have no idea why, but it's very confusing).

I'd have expected more from a Mozilla project.

You can see what I'm talking about by spoofing a mobile UA in your browser.

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#64

Post by zdkl »

mikegioia wrote: post #62
StevePerkins wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every year as December 31st looms, I sit down and parcel out my end-of-year donations to organizations I care about. Wikipedia, EFF, and of course some non-tech-related charities. Every year, I weigh whether I should throw some bucks to the Mozilla Foundation. I've been using their browsers, under one name or another, for over 20 years since the day I first discovered the web. It's been the most important piece of so…

This is a strange comment that starts in one place, and ends with your musings on the collapse of Mozilla. First off, Mozilla didn't have FF "fall into their lap" from Netscape. Netscape spun it off and gave birth to Mozilla. They absolutely do not consider Firefox legacy software and you'll need to back that up somehow for me to believe it. They may very well be a better company at $2M than they are at $300M, but th…

Despite the "bitter and angry" connotations, GPs comment still rings true. Everything branded Firefox or Mozilla is dying a slow, withering death. At least, everything I used to like using.

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#65

Post by lovelearning »

moonchrome wrote: post #48
lovelearning wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No compiling and linking required. Web and front end devs who are already familiar with JS can program IoT applications.

>No compiling and linking required. Seriously ? The only build/library ecosystem that I hate more than C++ is javascript/node - it has all the same problems (a bunch of competing and incompatible standards/tools/patterns that do the same thing) but lower quality because of so much noise from low barriers to entry (hey at least you need to get C++ to compile on one compiler - that's something).

In the context of IoT applications, the typical application is either a dashboard web page or a HTTP web service - hosted on the device in both cases - serving sensor information to whoever requests it.

Both cases are easily implemented using Javascript on Firefox OS [1].

In contrast, a C(++) application would let you read the GPIO states. But all the HTTP stuff still needs to be implemented. What's a good way to do that? I know C(++), Python and Java. I might select one of these. Can I use Node.js and interface with the C(C++) code? I don't really know.

I think such questions inhibit devs who have not done any/much backend programming from getting into the IoT field at all. Firefox OS solves that problem by exposing low level system interfaces via client-side JS.

As for the larger topic of javascript vs C(++) ecosystem, I can't say much because I'm not that familiar with server side javascript.

[1]: https://hacks.mozilla.org/2015/02/embedding-an-http-web-serv...

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#66

Post by mundanevoice »

thristian wrote: post #34
mundanevoice wrote: post #19

Mozilla does so many things. I am afraid they loose their focus on one thing they could have done best. Make the best open source browser of the world. Look how they abandoned firefox OS phones. They shouldn't hope to become Google by doing almost everything Google does. Google is way bigger and has better Engineers.

The thing is, making "the best open source browser of the world" has never been a priority for Mozilla. Their stated goal has always been "to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web". The first thing they made was a web-browser, because they had all the pieces and all the people right there, they had a good idea how to do it, and because the biggest threat to openness, innovation and opportunity on the…

> These days, Mozilla must be less focussed because there's no single dominant threat to focus on.

I don't think this is the right way. Having two much on the plate can actually be negative and you might end up doing nothing really well. I don't think that Mozilla should only be working on Firefox, but rather select few more which manage to do properly. We need a focused Mozilla, not a scattered Mozilla which tend to do everything that's a FAD (For eg: IOT)

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#67

Post by mundanevoice »

kibwen wrote: post #37
mundanevoice wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an assumption. Just look at the contributions of some of the senior staff engineers such as Brad Fitzpatrick for GO, Jeff dean to name a few on their projects. I don't see any parallel at Mozilla who could rival them. Well, for really ambitious software projects, you really need someone who has tonnes of experience and can write really good code. Not to say that Mozilla doesn't have any, but I thin…

I can't speak for Mozilla at large, but I've had the pleasure of witnessing both Mozilla's Rust and Servo teams at work and can assure you that they are at the top of their league. To pick just two examples, Alex Crichton is an unstoppable machine ricocheting around the compiler, standard libraries, package manager, various miscellaneous tooling, and dozens of libraries in the broader Rust ecosystem leaving patches i…

Well, you have a point but you see, both Rust and Servo are at the nascent stage. We still have to see widespread adoption of Rust. Servo is definitely way behind any browser engine in terms of features and specs and rewriting from scratch might also introduce new bugs(happens with every software product of considerable size). To summarise, both of these are very nice and ambitious goals but I really hope they turn into something nice rather than just an ambitious project(Servo).

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#68

Post by mundanevoice »

pjmlp wrote: post #61
mundanevoice wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an assumption. Just look at the contributions of some of the senior staff engineers such as Brad Fitzpatrick for GO, Jeff dean to name a few on their projects. I don't see any parallel at Mozilla who could rival them. Well, for really ambitious software projects, you really need someone who has tonnes of experience and can write really good code. Not to say that Mozilla doesn't have any, but I thin…

On the other hand, do you have experience with Android tooling or its APIs?

Yes, I am familiar with them. The tooling has been really good of late. Android Studio has really improved and it is no longer as bad as it was with Eclipse.

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#69

Post by ycosynot »

jokoon wrote: post #3

"Make Real Things with Browser Technologies" How is that better or so different than making real things in C ? What problem would it solve? I get that js got very popular thanks to browsers, but does that mean we should use js for everything? Seems like mozilla is just trying to salvage firefoxOS.

What's interesting is it's compatible with Web rendering probably at a relative cheap price, and it runs an OS which has WebRTC and stuff, so it can be used as a cheap terminal but which is still able to render internet modernly, and connect through WebRTC to any browser. So it could be used as a server and rendering unit in a network of cheaper C-only integrated circuits which connect to it, I think. Personally, I'm not an expert, but I'm intrigued. We're biased by the monstrosity of the thing, but I like the idea, and surely it serves its function.

Re: Chirimen, a Firefox OS-Powered IoT Single-Board Computer Developed by Mozilla

#70

Post by mundanevoice »

Terretta wrote: post #28
mundanevoice wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an assumption. Just look at the contributions of some of the senior staff engineers such as Brad Fitzpatrick for GO, Jeff dean to name a few on their projects. I don't see any parallel at Mozilla who could rival them. Well, for really ambitious software projects, you really need someone who has tonnes of experience and can write really good code. Not to say that Mozilla doesn't have any, but I thin…

> Well, for really ambitious software projects, you really need someone who has tonnes of experience and can write really good code. Perhaps more important is permission to explore and invent and follow through.

Permission to explore and invent sounds nice and it is very educational. However, It is not a guarantee a good quality product. You need correct decisions and architecture to write any complex software and experience matters a lot in this space.
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