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Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

cnet.com

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Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#41

Post by ebbv »

fabrice_d wrote: post #27

I don't know where journalists get their facts, but this article is terrible. 1) FirefoxOS was killed a year ago. 2) We never attempted to bring FxOS to other kind of connected devices beyond phones and TVs. If they had took the time to check the projects being worked on (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Projects ) they would have understood the activities a bit better. For instance, the device built fo…

Unfortunately Ars Technica is not even a shadow of the site it once was. It now reprints press releases and rumors like so many other tech sites.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#42

Post by eddieh »

Apocryphon wrote: post #26

Never mind sufficient adoption to challenge iOS/Android, what are the chances any of these other OS's even manages to survive? * Windows Phone * Tizen * Ubuntu Touch * Sailfish OS Honorable mentions: CyanogenMod, Plasma Mobile

I'd honestly love to see any of these gain market share. Tizen would be my preference, followed by Windows Phone (Surface Phone anyone?). It is pretty awful that we only have two real choices.

If I was in charge of either Tizen or the Surface Phone, I'd make one really nice piece of hardware for my phone OS to fight Android at the fragmentation and developer experience level.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#43

Post by ianbicking »

It is inaccurate that the members of the Connected Devices team (not FirefoxOS, which was cancelled a while ago) are simply being laid off. Their positions have (mostly) been eliminated, but there are opportunities for those individuals to find new positions in Mozilla. That's a challenging position to be in (I've gone through it myself at Mozilla, frankly it sucks), but it's not the same as a blanket layoff.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#44

Post by carussell »

remir wrote: post #36

Firefox OS should have competed against Chrome OS, not Android and iOS. Chrome OS is the perfect OS for the masses; lightweight, very secure and stable. A lot of things that used to require dedicated apps can be done in the browser now. Chromebooks are also great machines for schools, much more practical than iPads (in my opinion) and very easy to manage. Mozilla missed the boat.

The thing that's probably second most upsetting about Firefox OS is this:

If you say what you've just said right now, you'll be told you have the benefit of hindsight working in your favor.

On the other hand, if you had the ability to go back in time to make your argument back then, even with perfect omniscience about how things would turn out, then you would have been subjected to claims that there is no market for such a thing, that you're trying to satisfy your own nerd niche itch, and whatever post hoc rationale that the Firefox product team could have (and regularly did) come up with to reassure themselves that their track is the right one.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#45

Post by perryh2 »

keyle wrote: post #35
perryh2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible that they are collecting resumes online but never hiring or interviewing the candidates? The resumes would be used as evidence that they tried to hire Americans but didn't consider any of the applicants to be qualified. This evidence was used to file visa applications.

That's a pretty incriminating statement, do you have any proof?

Removed, thanks. Don't want to land in hot water.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#46

Post by chris_wot »

carussell wrote: post #44
remir wrote: post #36

Firefox OS should have competed against Chrome OS, not Android and iOS. Chrome OS is the perfect OS for the masses; lightweight, very secure and stable. A lot of things that used to require dedicated apps can be done in the browser now. Chromebooks are also great machines for schools, much more practical than iPads (in my opinion) and very easy to manage. Mozilla missed the boat.

The thing that's probably second most upsetting about Firefox OS is this: If you say what you've just said right now, you'll be told you have the benefit of hindsight working in your favor. On the other hand, if you had the ability to go back in time to make your argument back then, even with perfect omniscience about how things would turn out, then you would have been subjected to claims that there is no market for…

The difference is that Google was able to commercialise and sell their product.

You don't need hindsight to realise that competing in the phone markplace is the wrong place to start. You start with the desktop and then make gradual adaptions that allow your operating environment work well on tablets, phones and laptops.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#47

Post by Macuyiko »

ebbv wrote: post #41
fabrice_d wrote: post #27

I don't know where journalists get their facts, but this article is terrible. 1) FirefoxOS was killed a year ago. 2) We never attempted to bring FxOS to other kind of connected devices beyond phones and TVs. If they had took the time to check the projects being worked on (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Connected_Devices/Projects ) they would have understood the activities a bit better. For instance, the device built fo…

Unfortunately Ars Technica is not even a shadow of the site it once was. It now reprints press releases and rumors like so many other tech sites.

Noticed this as well... Pity, cause I loved reading Ars back in the day. Do you know of any solid alternatives?

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#48

Post by eli »

chris_wot wrote: post #46
carussell wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that's probably second most upsetting about Firefox OS is this: If you say what you've just said right now, you'll be told you have the benefit of hindsight working in your favor. On the other hand, if you had the ability to go back in time to make your argument back then, even with perfect omniscience about how things would turn out, then you would have been subjected to claims that there is no market for…

The difference is that Google was able to commercialise and sell their product. You don't need hindsight to realise that competing in the phone markplace is the wrong place to start. You start with the desktop and then make gradual adaptions that allow your operating environment work well on tablets, phones and laptops.

There is a lot of competition in the phone market because that's where the customers are. Desktop OSes are becoming less and less relevant.

Re: Mozilla closes Connected Devices division, lays off 50

#49

Post by 5ilv3r »

markcerqueira wrote: post #12
stymaar wrote: post #9

I use to have a Firefox OS phone (the Flame), but since I broke it last july, I switched to Android and 7 month in I still miss my FFOS phone :/. Android UX is just terrible, and the interface looks so slow (my new phone is a $400 phone from 2016, compared to a 180$ phone from 2014 …)

What Android phone are you using? Stock Android is pretty good in my opinion but the manufacturer and carrier-flavored versions of Android can get pretty disgusting.

Unless you are running AOSP, you are not using stock android. FirefoxOS WAS FAST. I demo'd it on single core 400mhz device and it ran circles around my dual core 1.5Ghz android with cyanogenmod 11.
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