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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

#311

Post by djsumdog »

nix0n wrote: post #282
djsumdog wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of package management and standard kernel/modules is a huge issue from Android. It keeps it from being truly open. I wrote a post about this a while ago: http://penguindreams.org/blog/android-fragmentation/ The TL;DR, Android needs to be fixed so ASOP can be installed on any phone, just like Linux/Windows. The current state is bizarre for what's essentially now a general purpose operating system.

I think you mean AOSP (Android Open Source Project) not ASOP (the linked article makes the same typo).

Wow...I even spelled it out at one point and still screwed it up while abbreviating it! Thanks man. I'll fix it. :)

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#312

Post by josteink »

ghostly_s wrote: post #189
maheart wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Android is Linux on the phone. It's Linux kernel with stuff on top. Android is just the Linux kernel on the phone -- that's the issue I have with it. It comes with none of the other stuff that makes GNU/Linux great: philosophically/socially it's different, but on a technical level it's missing rest of the GNU/Linux stack (e.g. package management, and the plethora of developer tools -- including languages and libra…

Is Tizen any closer to this?

From what I've read, you want as little as possible to do with Tizen:

https://what.thedailywtf.com/topic/15001/enlightened

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#313

Post by khattam »

kijin wrote: post #116
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 think the only option that has an even remote chance of success right now is to fork Android and do your own thing while maintaining compatibility with as many existing Android apps as possible. So, something like Cyanogenmod but with more drastic changes. It's Linux under the hood after all. It's already compatible with GNU coreutils and a whole bunch of other free software. No need to start again from zero.

The problem with that is Google can deny you rights to bundle Play Store... and they will if they see you as a thread... and you're fucked.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#314

Post by hamhamed »

emodendroket wrote: post #289
hamhamed wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have way more competitors in that space, but I still use it because it's clean and bloat free.

Really? What are all these desktop e-mail clients other than Thunderbird, Outlook, and Mail.app? And how many of them are cross-platform? I remember looking into whether there were alternatives for a while and really not being able to find anything.

Nylas, Polymail.. just to name a few

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#315

Post by setpatchaddress »

rajeshp1986 wrote: post #26
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.

@Yoavm, what pisses me more is that both Apple & Google now have a yearly update of their OS and all they shamelessly showcase on stage is emoji's and notifications.

That's what users actually care about. Market demand.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#316

Post by lisivka »

maheart wrote: post #71
supergreg wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What GNU/Linux mobile? Can you elaborate on that?

I develop for SailfishOS. As I described in one of my other comments, it really is just "regular" GNU/Linux underneath: >> I develop software for SailfishOS. It's like the Linux desktop. I SSH into my phone. zypper/pkcon install some dev tools (e.g. gcc, make, git). I initialise a Python virtualenv, pull down some libraries (e.g. Flask). I want to query SMS messages? I open an sqlite database on the filesystem. I can…

How much of SailfishOS is covered by GPL or GPL compatible license? I don't want to invest my time into someone else business for free.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#317

Post by proton1h1 »

andromeduck wrote: post #303
proton1h1 wrote: post #10

I really loved the idea of it, it was so intutive. Really sad to see firefox os go :(

Wtf hoe was it on any way intuitive?!

webapps running on firefox os is intuitive,in the end, all the apps we used are web-apps, trello, stackoverflow, facebook. Using similar web technology for webapp development seems intuitive, unlike java or C# or swift for app development.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#318

Post by coldtea »

qplex wrote: post #239
coldtea wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of course the big difference is that Linux succeeded while Firefox OS failed. But thats after the fact. The relevant big difference is that Linux filled a need and had a particular niche that had nothing to do with being "libre": it was good and costed nothing to run servers on. Big UNIX vendors charged an arm and a leg (and often required their own hw platforms to run), and their software was behind the times (to…

Actually being "free/open/libre" software has had everything to do with the success of Linux. However, I've heard the high cost of UNIX licenses in the early 90s was the reason why Linus decided to start his project. Also, Linux has never been "a failure" on the desktop: you seem to think that the definition of being successful is to have a complete monopoly.

>Also, Linux has never been "a failure" on the desktop: you seem to think that the definition of being successful is to have a complete monopoly.

Complete strawman.

First, I used the Linux advocates' own definition of "success": Linux overtaking MS on the desktop, and the fabled and continuously moving "Year of Linux on the desktop". Which never happened.

Second, what "complete monopoly" rubbish, which I never alluded to? Linux has less of 2% on the desktop (by all browser-based stats). For a completely free OS, that's a failure. 10-20% would have been a great success.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#319

Post by Gustomaximus »

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 wouldn't write of Microsoft yet. There is great potential if they can nail this phone to desktop merged experience. Enterprise would find it super appealing. And I could see consumers buying in too.

This has to be one of the best ways into handset market for MS/Ubuntu or others.

Re: Mozilla has stopped all commercial development on Firefox OS

#320

Post by ocdtrekkie »

abawany wrote: post #291
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that the majority of apps written on Android these days depend on Google APIs or libraries, to the point that an Android without Play Services is almost useless. (Yes, this is from experience.) Even Google's direct competitors require Google to use an Android. Skype and Outlook are great examples of apps you'd be amazed to discover will not run at all without Play Services.

There are fake GApps that I have tried on experimental devices and they fooled the apps enough to enable them to run. I haven't run these long-term or tried on more than 3 apps relevant to me to say if that would be a good approach.

I'd be a little iffy about security considerations once your plan is to rely on "fake apps".
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