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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

#271

Post by tjohns »

snuxoll wrote: post #186
skrowl wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android is Linux on the phone. It's Linux kernel with stuff on top. Check out Replicant. It removes most of the stuff you might find objectionable.

And the android UI framework is still garbage, having to freeze and thaw activity state just to handle screen rotation is the most insane thing I have ever heard of. Hell, even the various Symbians handled this better (I loved my Symbian S60 devices, but programming for them was an exercise in frustration).

I'm assuming you're referring to the behavior where activities are restarted on rotation and onSaveInstanceState() gets called.

This behavior is the default because it prevents developers from needing to think about their UI changing dimensions (including runtime screen size/density changes!)... but it's certainly not required by the framework.

If you set android:configChanges="orientation" in your application manifest, your app won't be automatically restarted. However, you'll become responsible for swapping out any UI resources at that point.

(Keep in mind that Android lets you declare completely different UI layouts and drawables for different device configurations, so depending on how you wrote your app, you may need to re-inflate part of your UI.)

Or just implement onSaveInstanceState() and let the OS do everything for you.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#272

Post by pjmlp »

cpeterso wrote: post #270
pjmlp wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And with Brillo and Fuchsia, Google is removing whatever is left of it.

What is Brillo taking away? I thought it was more a standardization of the HAL and Linux kernel?

Imagine Android with the Java Frameworks replaced by a similar C++ Framework, using Android IPC (not UNIX), bionic libc and Android's own Linux kernel fork.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig9GKAFzDxQ

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthvmTSlmIcMH93LIJNe-2w/sea...

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#273

Post by dblohm7 »

bobajeff wrote: post #267
dblohm7 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Tofino (which has now ended) was just an experimental testbed for trying some new browser concepts. It was easier for them to use Electron than to contend with Gecko's ossified embedding APIs. Hopefully positron ( https://github.com/mozilla/positron ) will allow us to use Gecko in the future. 2) Firefox iOS uses WebView not by choice, but because of Apple's App Store restrictions.

I didn't know Tolfino was ended already. I'm curious as whether the experiment ran it's course or if it was resources issue.

It ran its course. It was only supposed to be a three month project. See the original announcement: https://medium.com/project-tofino/browsers-innovators-dilemm...

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#274

Post by [deleted] »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #208

I'm super grateful to Mozilla for trying. I think we'll eventually get to an open source web phone, but we're not quite there yet. It's a tough market because as soon as you release something, there is a ticking clock until all of the low cost manufacturers release something cheaper and faster. Moore's law is not your friend when you're trying to differentiate a mobile product. Beyond that general difficulty, a web p…

[deleted]

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#275

Post by bobajeff »

aikah wrote: post #253
freehunter wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla experiments with a lot of stuff, and on iOS any browser has to be built with Webview. None of that means anything.

The point is Mozilla previously said FirefoxOS would live on through Internet of Things projects when they discontinued Firefox phones. They are using the exact same PR when shutting down FireFoxOS relative to Gecko. The question is, is Mozilla capable of maintaining its own browser engine today? both from an engineering perspective and from a financial perspective ? Let's see where Rust and Servo are going in the ne…

Yeah, but that's just how Mozilla's PR comes out. It doesn't mean they'll abandon Gecko.

I think it's more likely they'll make Gecko/Firefox into community led projects and dissolve Mozilla Corporation.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#276

Post by snuxoll »

tjohns wrote: post #271
snuxoll wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the android UI framework is still garbage, having to freeze and thaw activity state just to handle screen rotation is the most insane thing I have ever heard of. Hell, even the various Symbians handled this better (I loved my Symbian S60 devices, but programming for them was an exercise in frustration).

I'm assuming you're referring to the behavior where activities are restarted on rotation and onSaveInstanceState() gets called. This behavior is the default because it prevents developers from needing to think about their UI changing dimensions (including runtime screen size/density changes!)... but it's certainly not required by the framework. If you set android:configChanges="orientation" in your application manife…

Yet both Windows Mobile and iOS handle this flawlessly without having to wire all sorts of extra code up. Sure, it's possible to do it with Android, but it's a hell of a lot more work than any other platform.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#277

Post by toast0 »

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 don't think it's impossible. It does take consistent investment, and consistently not screwing things up. Between Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows Mobile 10, Microsoft decided that 'one Windows platform' was more important than a dedicated mobile team, and as a result, Windows Mobile 10 arrived several months late and without polish. Their hardware refresh (Lumia 950, Lumia 550, etc) was held up waiting for the software and as a result, they lost momentum. Additionally, promised upgradability from 8.1 devices to Windows 10 came with a lot of caveats.

A great Windows Phone 10 launch would not have put them in the top two, but it may have solidified them as a third platform.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#278

Post by Raphmedia »

emodendroket wrote: post #203
vollmond wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want a dumb display and a smart STB -- because I don't want to have to replace a thousand-dollar display just to get new STB hardware. It's why I have a TV and a Roku, rather than a Roku TV. Why combine them when their upgrade cycles don't match up?

AFAIK at this point the dumb TVs all have worse displays.

Get yourself a big computer screen instead? That's what I use.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#279

Post by TylerE »

rocky1138 wrote: post #265
mmagin wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By full computer, you mean something of 'low-end chromebook' spec. Usable mobile power management and thermal design isn't really going to achieve what you get with a good laptop or desktop.

Very true! This hardly holds up to, say, a CAD$600 laptop. But, it'll be very handy to take traveling around the world or to visit my parents/nephew to play some Minecraft.

You want a free-as-in-freedom portable device so you can play a closed source Microsoft product?

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#280

Post by devereaux »

rocky1138 wrote: post #163
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 you haven't already, please consider the Pyra. It's a full Linux desktop in a phone-ish format and supports SIM cards for voice calling and text. https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

Extremely interesting.

Please tell us more about the LTE capabilities. Is it provided by a removable board? Which bands are supported??

Based on https://www.dragonbox.de/en/45-pyra it only supports B17 and AWS, which makes it mostly a AT&T compatible device

I wish it would support other bands, B25 for sprint (which has cheaper LTE plans)

Also, the wifi chipset is known. Can you run a hostapd?

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