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Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

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Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#41

Post by maheart »

creshal wrote: post #39
maheart wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big supporter of GNU/Linux on the phone. I don't care if Jolla or Ubuntu don't ever make it as "major" players in the mobile OS world. I'd be perfectly happy with GNU/Linux mobile software that's as good as the Linux desktop. I run Linux on my desktop (and laptop), and we're 1% of desktop users. I'd be satisfied with 1% mobile market share. We don't need a billion users, all I want is a hacker-friendly platform…

If only there was any decent hardware for Jolla.

If you're not satisfied with the "official" devices (e.g. Jolla 1, Intex Aquafish, or Jolla C [if you were lucky enough]), then there are a number of community ports at varying levels of maturity[1].

Otherwise, there's the possibility that the Fairphone 2 will receive official SailfishOS support. Finally, there's a number of yet unreleased devices with official SailfishOS support[2]

[1] https://wiki.merproject.org/wiki/Adaptations/libhybris

[2] https://together.jolla.com/question/136143/wiki-available-de...

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#42

Post by beardicus »

This makes me sad, not because I wanted to use Firefox OS, but because JanOS[1] (a hacked up FFOS) turned cheap Firefox phones into really powerful Javascript-based hardware hacking platforms. It's really quite fun, and I love the idea of abusing the economies of scale of cheap consumer electronics to make creative hardware tools. Most dedicated hardware development boards with all the features of a phone would cost 4 times as much.

[1]: http://janos.io/

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#43

Post by rihegher »

yoavm wrote: post #6

So we had Jolla, Ubuntu, Mozilla and even Microsoft trying to create a new major player in the mobile OSs market - all pretty much failed to do so. Is it practically impossible? Are we stuck with Android and iOS forever? This tiny selection of options worries me.

There gonna be a third option like ubuntu desktop is the third option after windows and macos. But It's gonna be for people who value control or privacy above everything else. The key factor remains the timing for this third option to rise.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#44

Post by wiineeth »

yoavm wrote: post #6

So we had Jolla, Ubuntu, Mozilla and even Microsoft trying to create a new major player in the mobile OSs market - all pretty much failed to do so. Is it practically impossible? Are we stuck with Android and iOS forever? This tiny selection of options worries me.

The problem is Android and IOS basically came at the same time and got almost same apps in them. For a new platform there is not much to innovate other than we have the same features, but not the same company. There is only way to win in this industry now. Its to create a OS which has compatibility with android apps and has excellent hardware integration.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#45

Post by maheart »

nir wrote: post #8
yoavm wrote: post #6

So we had Jolla, Ubuntu, Mozilla and even Microsoft trying to create a new major player in the mobile OSs market - all pretty much failed to do so. Is it practically impossible? Are we stuck with Android and iOS forever? This tiny selection of options worries me.

As it stands you either give Apple complete control of you software/hardware or you give Google full access to every detail of your life. There should be a sticker "Don't blame me, I supported Firefox OS"

I know you're half-joking, but if this is something you're passionate about, there are things you can do (while there's still alternatives platforms...):

1. Purchase non-Apple, and non-Android devices (e.g. Jolla/SailfishOS, Ubuntu Touch devices)

2. Develop software for the alternative platforms -- that's what I do. It's a lot of fun programming on a GNU/Linux mobile. I write software in Python with 3rd party modules from pypi, and Qt/QML.

3. Spread the word. Tell other like-minded developers about how fun it is to work on your alternative platform of choice. Plus since there's only 10s of thousands of users, your software actual gets used (and people appreciate it!).

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#46

Post by carussell »

pjmlp wrote: post #33
userbinator wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PC was sure "open"... ever since IBM released the complete schematics and BIOS source code for the PC, XT, and AT. Maybe not in the OSHW/FOSS sense, but it was certainly open enough for tons of clones to flood the market. It's only been getting more closed since then.

They never released anything, Compaq reversed engineered them. IBM tried to close the PC again with the PS/2 models but it was too late for them.

Compaq, on the other hand, was the first “PC clone” company. It’s a term that sounds rather quaint today. At the time, though, Compaq sent a shudder through the industry. Compaq reverse-engineered the IBM PC BIOS without ever looking at the BIOS code. That was harder than you might think, because IBM actually published the assembly code for the PC BIOS in its technical reference manuals. Compaq was able to prove that its engineers never looked at the code or disassembled the original BIOS to come up with their own.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/57702-hewlettpackard-co...

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#47

Post by rihegher »

creshal wrote: post #39
maheart wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a big supporter of GNU/Linux on the phone. I don't care if Jolla or Ubuntu don't ever make it as "major" players in the mobile OS world. I'd be perfectly happy with GNU/Linux mobile software that's as good as the Linux desktop. I run Linux on my desktop (and laptop), and we're 1% of desktop users. I'd be satisfied with 1% mobile market share. We don't need a billion users, all I want is a hacker-friendly platform…

If only there was any decent hardware for Jolla.

And if only Sailfish OS was open source. https://together.jolla.com/question/80676/request-fully-open...

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#48

Post by tarancato »

bionsuba wrote: post #3

This outcome should have been obvious to everyone involved. The fact that it wasn't raises serious doubts about the Mozilla leadership. You can't compete with Android by being slower, less responsive, and ship with less features.

Seriously... I avoid Firefox on my (rather beefy) desktop because of how much it freezes. I don't want to imagine how it worked on a 50€ phone, which looked like it was their target.

Maybe they thought Gecko would be ready by the time the OS was going to ship?

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#49

Post by teekert »

tarancato wrote: post #48
bionsuba wrote: post #3

This outcome should have been obvious to everyone involved. The fact that it wasn't raises serious doubts about the Mozilla leadership. You can't compete with Android by being slower, less responsive, and ship with less features.

Seriously... I avoid Firefox on my (rather beefy) desktop because of how much it freezes. I don't want to imagine how it worked on a 50€ phone, which looked like it was their target. Maybe they thought Gecko would be ready by the time the OS was going to ship?

But this a poor, skewing argument always made by at least one person here. For most FF is very responsive and there are no problems what so ever.

And FF is not FF-OS.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#50

Post by teekert »

maheart wrote: post #27
yoavm wrote: post #6

So we had Jolla, Ubuntu, Mozilla and even Microsoft trying to create a new major player in the mobile OSs market - all pretty much failed to do so. Is it practically impossible? Are we stuck with Android and iOS forever? This tiny selection of options worries me.

I'm a big supporter of GNU/Linux on the phone. I don't care if Jolla or Ubuntu don't ever make it as "major" players in the mobile OS world. I'd be perfectly happy with GNU/Linux mobile software that's as good as the Linux desktop. I run Linux on my desktop (and laptop), and we're 1% of desktop users. I'd be satisfied with 1% mobile market share. We don't need a billion users, all I want is a hacker-friendly platform…

True true, I'm craving the day Ubnut Phone runs on my OnePlus 3. But I also used an loved Window Phone (so smooth, so intuitive and beautiful)... But the lack of apps kills you. Start with being able to run APKs, go from there please.
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